WHAT IS THE ECTS?

The European Community promotes interuniversity cooperation as a means of improving the quality of education for the benefit of students and higher education institutions, and student mobility is a predominant element of that interuniversity cooperation. The exchange programmes clearly demonstrate that studying abroad can be a particularly valuable experience as it is not only the best way to learn about other countries, ideas, languages and cultures; increasingly it is also an important element in academic and professional career development.

The recognition of studies and diplomas is a prerequisite for the creation of an Open European area of education and training where students and teachers can move without obstacles. That is why the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) was developed. ECTS is a project of the European Commission that is supposed to make the accreditation of academic records, received in a foreign country, easier. Each university or faculty has to decide for itself whether to participate in ECTS or not. ECTS is based on a trustful cooperation of the participating universities and therefore does not need to have many rules.