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Prior Learning Policy

CREDIT TRANSFERS FROM OTHER INSTITUTION

The European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) is a tool of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) for making studies and courses more transparent and thus helping to enhance the quality of higher education.

ECTS was instituted in 1989, within the Erasmus programme, as a way of transferring credits that students earned during their studies abroad into credits that counted towards their degree, on their return to studying in their home institution. In the following years, it came to be used not only for transferring credits, on the basis of workload and achieved learning outcomes, but also for accumulating
them in institutions’ degree programmes. ECTS helps in the design, description and delivery of programmes, makes it possible to integrate different types of learning in a lifelong learning perspective, and facilitates
the mobility of students by easing the process of recognising qualifications and periods of study. ECTS can be applied to all programmes, whatever the mode of delivery (classroom-based, work-based, distance learning) or the status of students (full-time, part-time), and to all kinds of learning contexts (formal, non-formal and informal).

ECTS explained

European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) is a method of measuring your study programme as academic currency. ECTS is used all over Europe and enables you to easily compare study programmes and transfer your academic qualifications from one educational institution to another. Its aim is to makes programmes and the performance of students of higher education more transparent and comparable European-wide and to replace or complement the different local (national) standards within Europe.

The use of ECTS points is compulsory in higher education in Europe. All Swiss higher education programmes are described according to ECTS as a system for both credit transfer and academic credit accumulation towards the final degree.
ECTS-credits.

One year of studies corresponds to 60 ECTS-credits and one semester corresponds to 30 ECTS-credits . A 3-year Bachelors programme has therefore 180 ECTS-credits; a 2-year Masters programme 120 ECTS-credits. On average, one ECTS credit point equals between 25-30 working hours. The number of credits awarded for each course varies depending on the workload.

Credits earned for relevant courses completed at other schools, colleges or universities can be evaluated for transfer into one of our bachelors programs. Transfer students do not need to submit letters of recommendation. Transfer students need to submit transcripts from their previous schools, colleges or universities so that credits and courses may be evaluated for transfer.

For more elaborate information about ECTS, please see the ECTS Users’ guide

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