Once you officially become a student, you enter a new world of learning activities, teaching styles, and assessment methods. And the academic credit system in education is an important part of this world.
You need to understand university credits in order to understand how your progress is evaluated during your studies or how you can transfer credit points to study at a university abroad.
What is the credit system in education?
The credit system in education is a standard used by universities to measure and assess students’ work and effort during their Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD programme.
Most of the time, each country uses a different credit system in education, and it's important to understand how these credits work and how you can transfer credit points from one academic system to another.
Moreover, sometimes students need to take preparation courses in order to meet starting credit requirements needed for university admission.
The most relevant academic credit systems for international students are:
- ECTS - European credits
- Semester Credit Hours (SCH) and Quarter Credits - American credits
For each course you take during your degree studies, you will earn a number of credits. How? You will be assessed by your professor in terms of the amount of knowledge and skills you achieve once you complete that course. Common forms of assessment are a combination of the following:
- actual attendance
- tests taken during the course
- projects/research work
- oral/written examination
Mainly, each course is worth a certain number of credit points, determined by different criteria including student’s workload, learning outcome and contact hours. Usually, the more work and effort a student is required to put into a course, the more credits that course is worth. The suggested workload is an estimate for an average student.
Australian credit system in education
Australian universities don’t have a unified credit system in education. Each university calculates the credits according to workload and number of study hours per each course.
Credit transfer is available for both undergraduate and postgraduate study programmes and it is established and coordinated by the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF).
Read more about academic credits in Australia.
>> Here are a few universities in Australia we recommend:
- University of Canberra
- University of Newcastle
- The University of Western Australia
- Charles Sturt University
- La Trobe University
Check out other Masters in Australia.
American credit system in education
In the US, students receive semester credit hours, which are based on the number of contact hours accumulated during one semester.
How many credits to graduate college do you need in the US? Generally, you need to take around 5 courses each semester, where each course is worth 3 semester credit hours, the equivalent of 45-48 contact hours. All these would add up to 30 credits per year, the required number to successfully complete a degree in the US.
Read more about academic credit in the U.S.
>> Here are a few US universities we recommend:
Check out Masters in the U.S.
European credit system in education
Aligned to the Bologna system, universities in the EU and EEA countries use the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) as the main credit system in education, as well as a way to keep track of credit transfers for students coming from these countries.
So, how many credits do you need for a Bachelor's or Master's degree in Europe? In ECTS, a full study year normally consists of 60 credits, so completing a Bachelor’s degree would require earning 180 credits and a Master’s degree would require 120 credit points.
>> Here are a few European universities we recommend:
- Manchester Metropolitan University, the UK
- Maastricht University, the Netherlands
- University of Cologne, Germany
- Aarhus University, Denmark
- KU Leuven, Belgium
- ESIEE Paris, France
Check out Masters in Europe.
Benefits the credit system in education offers to international students
You can earn academic credits for any type of study programme (modules, courses, placements, dissertation work, etc.), and they express the work required for successfully completing the programme.
Through academic credits, students get a consistent and transparent way of valuing their learning achievements. The awarded credits are recorded in a credit transcript that can lead to a qualification.
Main benefits of the credit system in education:
- Credits support your entry to a higher education programme
- They keep track of student progress and determine when he/she has met study requirements
- They estimate the workload of a programme
- You can transfer to another university programme while keeping part or all previously earned credit points
- Use the credit you earned to study abroad – academic credit is used and recognized internationally
- Academic credits act as proof of previous studies when looking for a job
- Some universities use academic study credits to set degree costs
How is academic credit distributed between courses?
Take the example of the ECTS system used in EU/EEA countries. The required amount of credits during a year is 60 credits, which means 30 credits per semester.
Usually, you would have around four mandatory courses during a semester, with each course worth an average of 7.5 credits. However, there may be cases of classes earning you 9 credits, and others 4 or 5, but the semester total always results in 30 credits.
What is a student’s workload?
In some cases, like the ECTS credit system in education, students earn credits based on their workload. This workload refers to the specific amount of time it takes an average student to reach the desired learning outcome. The workload includes most academic activities such as lectures, seminars, individual study, exams, etc.
What does learning outcome mean?
Learning outcome refers to the level of knowledge students are expected to gain and be able to apply after completing a process of learning. This may also include skills acquired that they could apply in future professions.
What is a contact hour?
A contact hour is usually equal to 50 minutes and refers to a lecture or a lab time, so basically a teaching class. This may, however, vary from one credit system in education to another.