Credit System in American & UK Universities: Advantages & More

[no name]

hey all
i heard that in most american universities ... they have the credit system in their studies ... is that true ... what is exactly this system ... what r the advantages of it ...?? is this system also applied in the uk universities ??
cheeeeeeeeerz

 

[Andromeda321]

The way it works at most schools is for every class you take you get a certain number of credit hours based on how many hours a week the class meets. You usually have a minimum and maximum you can take every year, and it's used in calculating your GPA. Some schools do it differently, but that's the standard.

 

[Nylex]

We have a system of credits here too, but it doesn't sound like it's the same as in the US. Also, I'm not sure if all universities do it, but I expect they do. It probably works out different in different universities too. At my university for example, each year is worth 120 credits and each module contributes to some of those credits. So, modules that are worth more credits contribute more to your end of year mark (most of my modules this year are 10 credits, only 1 is 20). Again, not sure about other places, but where I am, you need 300 credits to get a BSc (bachelor of science) degree and 100 of those have to be obtained in your 3rd (last) year. So, you can afford to fail some stuff.

 

[Dracovich]

I think all of europe uses the same credit system. You get ECTS ("European credit transfer system" i think it stands for) points. In my school you get 7,5 ECTS points for each course, and there's 8 courses each year. It´s 180 credits for a bachelor.

You can propably get your credits given as ECTS points as well as your local system if you want, my school just uses the ECTS point for simplification purposes. And i´d be very surprised if there wasn´t some conversion system between ECTS and american credits since these are two widely used standards (assuming that credits received in American colleges are a standard).

 

[Nylex]

Yeah, that's what ECTS stands for, I thought it was just for the Erasmus scheme though.

 

[Dracovich]

might be, i´m just a first years student so I'm no authority on this :) But like i said, my school shows all it's credits in ECTS, and I'm pretty sure it's just a general credit system, so if you decide to switch schools halfway through your studies, and go to another country, then there's a standardized system for all of europe so you can easily transfer your credits between schools.

 

[Nylex]

Ahh ok, that makes sense so I'd assume you're right .