ECTS is the abbreviation for the European Community Credit Transfer System. It constitutes part of the mobility programme for ERASMUS students and, as of the academic year 1996-97, part of the ERASMUS-SOCRATES programme. It has been proposed by the European Commission and aims to ensure common procedures for the academic recognition of studies offered to students travelling between various European educational institutions within the framework of European educational programmes. The ECTS is based in principle on mutual confidence between cooperating institutions.
The ECTS is directly related to the learning agreement which will be signed between the institution of origin, the host institution and each mobile student individually. This agreement sets out the programme of studies to be followed by the student at the host institution. A necessary condition for the existence of such an agreement is the provision of information about the courses offered by the participating institutions. The ECTS provides for the creation of a booklet containing information about the university department which intends to accept ECTS students. This booklet describes the courses being offered and how they are organised, and provides information about daily student life. This three-party agreement specifies the number of credits the student will collect during his studies at the host institution, and the institution of origin is bound to recognise them. Every university department participating in ECTS is obliged to issue an information booklet describing the courses it offers as well as the credits each one carries.
A credit is a unit for measuring the student's workload, which as a rule represents the action required for successful participation, attendance and examination in a course. The standard number of credits per academic year is 60, or 30 per semester. Obviously, credits are entered on the student's record when he or she has fulfilled the requirements of the course successfully; these requirements may include participation in seminars, lectures, study in the library, field research etc. It should be noted that all ECTS courses are regular courses in the participating institutions, as attended under ordinary circumstances by their own students.
Within the ECTS system, mobile students are assured full recognition for the academic work they have successfully completed at any university which is an ECTS member. These credits can be transferred from one university to another, on the basis of a previous learning agreement between the institution of origin, the host institution and the student. Thus, when students return to their own institution after studying at the host institution(s), they carry the credits they earned at the latter. In the event that a student wishes to remain and graduate at the host institution, he will have to adjust his course of study to the laws and provisions in force at the host university and country. Students selected by their institution to take part in the ECTS pilot programme may obtain a scholarship if they meet the conditions, which are similar to those of the ERASMUS scholarships, and with the following provisions:
For further information, printed matter is available from the following address:
ERASMUS BUREAU
70, rue Montoyer
13 - 1040 Bruxelles
τηλ. 32 - 2 - 2330111
fax 32 - 2 - 2330150
The Department of History has concluded a bilateral agreement with the French Universities of Paul Valery - Montpellier III and Franche-Comte (Besancon), in the objective of promoting teaching and research methods in particular scientific areas, while in the framework of the SOCRATES/ERASMUS Programme, the Department co-operates with the following universities: Besancon, Bologna, Bordeaux III, Coimbra, Valladolid, Liege, Montpellier III, Zaragoza and Wien.
From 1996/97 academic year, the Department coordinates, representing the European side, a network of European and American Universities, with the subject "Study and evaluation of cultural landscapes". In this network participate the following: University of Paris IV and Besancon, the Greek National Research Foundation, the Ohio State University, the Florida State University, the St. Cloud State University, Wooster College and Ohio Historical Society. The objective of this network, which has been integrated in and financed by the EU/US Cooperation in Higher Education, is the students' exchange, the gradual approach to the curriculums of the participating Institutions as well as the promotion of a common programme with regard to the study of cultural landscape.
Except for the Department's bilateral and international relations, which surround the transport of students and the common development of various university programmes, the Department of History and its Teaching Staff preserve an important international relations network, within the framework of various research programmes.