ECTS System
European Credit Transfer System
ECTS is an effort to introduce a “common language” when talking about workloads and grades. The Law School makes use of the European Commission's ECTS to assist in assessing how much work students should be required to do while abroad and how to translate the marks received while abroad.
Workloads
For workloads, it is deemed that a full year's work at any university equals 60 ECTS credits (30 ECTS to a semester).
This means that a QUB module = 10 ECTS credits.
If a third year university student in France takes 10 courses then each course = 6 ECTS, and so on. (Therefore 60 ECTS = 120 CATS / UK credits).
QUB students are expected to study 40 ECTS worth of courses during their year abroad. Please see the "Advice for Students while abroad" section for more details.
Socrates students visiting QUB:
Grades
ECTS also provides a common grading system which all universities can employ to assist in translating marks. For grades, the letters A, B, C, D, E are used to designate performances falling in the following percentiles (of those students who pass): 10, 25, 30, 25, 10. The scale is as follows.
ECTS Grade |
Description |
% of students who receive this grade |
Approx. QUB Equivalent. |
A |
Excellent, outstanding with only minor errors |
10% |
First Class |
B |
Very Good, above average but with some errors |
25 % |
65-69 |
C |
Good, generally sound with notable errors |
30% |
60-64 |
D |
Satisfactory, fair but significant shortcomings |
25% |
50-59 |
E |
Sufficient to meet minimum criteria |
10% |
40-49 |
FX/F |
Fail, some / considerable work required |
- |
0-39 |
Details of ECTS are available at: http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/socrates/ects.html
