ECTS in Its Year of Inauguration

📖 The Scoop

This study evaluated the European Community Course Credit Transfer System (ECTS), an experimental pilot project designed to evaluate possibilities of credit transfer within the European Community as a means of academic recognition. The ECTS program furthers student mobility within the Community by encouraging students to undertake a substantial period of study in another Community Member State. The study, conducted in the program's first year, involved a 70-question questionnaire administered to 510 students of whom 66.5 percent responded. The students were surveyed in the months after they completed their study abroad experience. Results indicated the following: that 25 percent had serous problems regarding the award of credits and credit transfer; that the formal mechanisms of the ECTS pilot were not well established in the first year; that students were admitted to 98 percent of courses they had chosen originally; that the average number of credits transferred was 95 percent of those awarded during the study period abroad; that knowledge of the host country's culture and society increased substantially during the study abroad period; that the personal value of the experience was viewed positively by most students; and that student experience varied in relation to field of study. Extensive tables present the study data throughout. (JB)

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