ECTS Documents

What is ECTS credits?

The European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) is a student-centered system based on the student workload required to achieve the objectives of a program of study. These objectives should preferably be specified in terms of learning outcomes and competences to be acquired.

• ECTS is based on the principle that 60 credits measure the workload of a full-time student during one academic year. The student workload of a full-time study program in Europe amounts in most cases to around 1500-1800 hours per year and in those cases one credit stands for around 25 to 30 working hours.
• Credits in ECTS can only be obtained after successful completion of the work required and appropriate assessment of the learning outcomes achieved. Learning outcomes are sets of competences, expressing what the student will know, understand or be able to do after completion of a process of learning, long or short.
• Student workload in ECTS consists of the time required to complete all planned learning activities such as attending lectures, seminars, independent and private study, preparation of projects, examinations, and so forth.
• Credits are allocated to all educational components of a study program (such as modules, courses, placements, dissertation work, etc.) and reflect the quantity of work each component requires to achieve its specific objectives or learning outcomes in relation to the total quantity of work necessary to complete a full year of study successfully.

The ECTS grading scale

The ECTS scale is a grading system designed to facilitate the transfer of academic results (expressed in terms of grades) between different national assessment systems. It is adopted by universities in the countries belonging to the European Higher Education Area, allowing the conversion of the grades from one country into grades used in another country, following common European rules.

The various national assessment systems are related to each other through the ECTS scale, a unique system that compares the statistical distribution of grades in the different systems. The ECTS scale is based on the results obtained by a uniform group of students in a given period of time, according to the following rule:

• grade A corresponds to the grades obtained by the best 10% of students;
• grade B corresponds to the grades obtained by the next 25%;
• grade C corresponds to the grades obtained by the next 30%;
• grade D corresponds to the grades obtained by the next 25%;
• grade E corresponds to the grades obtained by the final 10%.

Each value of the ECTS scale corresponds to a more or less wide range of grades in the national systems.

To make its conversion system more transparent and understandable, the University of Bologna has adopted the ECTS grading tables which, for each positive grade on the Italian scale, indicate not only the corresponding ECTS grade but also the actual percentage of students who obtained that grade.

Institution Grading System: