Transferable credits - ECTS credits
ECTS, the European Credit Transfer System, was developed by the European Commission to provide common procedures that guarantee the full transfer of credits for studies abroad toward the final qualification in the home country. ECTS credits are a value allocated to course units and they describe the workload required to complete a course or module. In the ECTS system, 60 credits correspond to one academic year's worth of full-time studies.
Important information about ECTS credits
- An ECTS study plan is made out before applying for an exchange (see below)
- The ECTS transcript will be in English, where all of the ECTS credits and grades have been determined
- All of the course descriptions and amount of ECTS credits will be given in an ECTS study guide or syllabus
- Every subject will have its own ECTS contact person who will advise the student applying for an exchange on creating a plan with transferable credits for his/her study study module
Applying for grants and study places
Students planning on going abroad must contact their own department's ECTS contact person and check from the study guides offered by different universities for choosing their destination. The ECTS contact person will also assist in making out a study plan which must be approved as transferable studies for their degree at the University of Turku. The use of ECTS credits helps the student plan a realistic study programme from his/her total amount of work need for the degree. If the host university is not part of the ECTS system, a study plan is to be made up adapting to the courses and the amount and of studies given by the institutions information. The contact person may have also had previous experience with the amount of studies and offers from partner universities.
In applying, the student and department must sign a study plan which then is attached to a grant application. The student must submit a separate study plan to each separate host university he/she is applying for. Furthermore, if the students intends on taking courses which belong to more than one subject area, he/she must make an individual study plan for each one and discuss this with the ECTS contact person of each subject.
When starting their studies abroad, students often notice that they would like to change their original study plan. For example they might find new information concerning the programme of the term in question or the courses they had already agreed to are not quite what they expected.This should be done during the first month of their exchange period by using the Changes to Learning Agreement form. Changes must be made with the department ECTS contact person about the transferability of the studies in question.
Students accepted for an exchange must also send the receiving institution also send an approved study plan along with other application materials. After the final decision about study grants is made, either the faculty or central administration ECTS contact person must sign the study plan in addition to the contact person of the department. Furthermore, the student must send the receiving institution a so-called ECTS transcript of records. This is an English-language transcript which will show all of the student's studies accomplished at the University of Turku according to the ECTS credit system. After the exchange, the student must request a similar transcript form the host institution. The student must turn to his/her department's ECTS Coordinator in order for the completed studies to be recorded in the study register.
How to get information about courses offered abroad
Information retrieval is an essentially important part of preparing for studying abroad. Each year, institutions that use the ECTS credit system publish study guides and have information on their websites to make it easier for students to know what studies are available. You can ask your own department or the faculty ECTS or Erasmus contact person for information. There is also information about the different universities on the shelves at Student Services. If you cannot find the information you are looking for, you can ask the ECTS coordinator at your faculty to contact the university in question. Quite often there is no information about courses of the following academic year when applying for a grant. In that case, the study plan is made out based on the information of the existing academic year. It's good to note on the application if no course information of the actual exchange period has been used.
Information about comparing the credits and grading scale of the University of Turku with the ECTS credit system as well as with the American grading system cane be found here.