EUROPEAN CREDIT TRANSFER SYSTEM (ECTS)
Residence and attendance for one or two semesters at a host University abroad, in the framework of the ERASMUS programme, is not limited to a simple acquaintance of the student with another European Institution of Higher Education. The transfer student has almost all the rights and obligations of a regular student of the host University. The transfer student participates in the courses, in the tasks and examinations for credits chosen with the assistance and the consensus of the teachers of both of the Universities.
It should thus be apparent that the credits of the student in the host University must be transferred to the University where he or she studies normally.
The transfer of credits is not easy because of the differences among the educational systems of the Member-States and the peculiarities of each European Institution of Higher Education (term of studies, content of the courses, etc).
Thus, the European Commission proposed a European Community Credit Transfer System (ECTS) aiming to ensure common procedures for the academic recognition of studies offered to students traveling between the various European Educational Institutions within the framework of European educational programmes. The ECTS is based in principle on mutual confidence among the cooperating Institutions.
The ECTS is directly related to the learning agreement which is signed between the Institution of origin, the host Institution and each transfer student individually. This agreement sets out the programme of studies to be attended by the student at the host Institution. A prerequisite for such an agreement is the provision of information on the courses offered by the participating Institutions. ECTS provides for the creation of a booklet containing information on the University Department which intends to accept ECTS students. This booklet refers to the courses being offered and describes them, the organization of studies as well as to daily student life.
The above-mentioned three-party agreement secures the number of credits collected by the student during his/her studies at the host University, and the Institution of origin is bound to recognize them. Every University Department participating in ECTS is obliged to issue an Information Booklet-Guide of Studies in more than one European language describing the offered courses as well as the credits each one carries.
According to the declaration of Bologna, there is clear provision for the development of a European system (transfer) of academic credits. It constitutes one of the main tools for the creation of a «European Sector for Higher Education». More precisely in the Declaration signed by 29 education Ministers is a proposal for the «Establishment of a system of academic accreditation –such as the ECTS– as an appropriate method of promoting to the maximum extent the mobility of students. Academic credits may also be gained outside the framework of Higher Education in life-long learning, on condition that they are recognized by the host University».
ECTS CREDITS
A credit is a unit 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 a 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, transfer students are assured full recognition of the academic work they have successfully completed at any University which is an ECTS member. Such students can transfer these credits 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 the students return to their own Institution after studying at the host Institution(s), they carry the credits they earned at the latter.
The adoption of a European Community Credit Transfer System by the Department of History offers important benefits to its students:
a) It increases transparency, making an understanding and comparison of different educational systems easier.
b) It improves the acknowledgement procedure of academic and professional titles (including the intermediate certificates) with the goal of increasing employment in Europe.
c) It provides the necessary flexibility in order to make the most of opportunities for studies that are provided to the EC citizens. Credits allow the development of connections between various types and kinds of education.
d) It facilitates regional, national and international mobility which broadens options for studies and students; ECTS gives the possibility of full recognition of the studies abroad (credit transfer).
e) It facilitates the recognition of academic titles, making them more flexible for the mobility. The main advantage of this system is that it includes the transfer and the accumulation of credits and that it is available to all the students, not only to those participating in student exchange programmes.
f) It facilitates cooperation between European Institutions and the elaboration of common programmes of studies, etc.
Further information is provided in ECTS publications distributed from the following address:
ERASMUS BUREAU, 70 rue Montoyer, 13 – 1040 Bruxelles
Tel.: 32-2-2330111 Fax: 32-2-2330150
Professor Helen Angelomatis is the academic coordination –on behalf of the Department of History– for the ERASMUS programme as well as the ECTS.
Mrs. D. Karvounis is responsible for coordinating and monitoring of the student exchange programme on behalf of the Ionian University.
INTER-UNIVERSITY COOPERATION PROGRAMMES
The financial assistance for ERASMUS/SOCRATES programme in Institutions of Higher Education has as a goal to encourage the Institutions of different EC countries to organize Programmes of Cooperation in one or more of the following activities:
– students mobility programmes
– mobility programmes for the teaching staff
– joint elaboration of new curricula
– intensive programmes
ERASMUS
Within the framework of this programme, the students of the University have the opportunity to attend courses in another European Member-State University for a term of studies while the students of other European Universities have the opportunity to attend this University.
The start of the ERASMUS scholarship programme for the Ionian University took place during the academic year 1989-1990. In the framework of this programme over 60 undergraduate and post-graduate students of the Department of History have been to the Universities of Paul Valéry in Montpellier (France), Saint Andrews (Scotland), Valladolid (Spain), as well as to Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano (Italy), the Universities of Salamanca (Spain), of Leicester (Great Britain), of Bordeaux (France), of Bologna (Italy), of Liège (Belgium), of Coimbra (Portugal). Similarly the Ionian University has given the opportunity to a number of foreign students to attend courses in Corfu in the context of the same programme.
A student of the Department of History in order to be selected to participate in the ERASMUS programme must:
– Be a citizen of an EU member-state, or citizen of an EFTA country, or must have been officially recognized with the status of a refugee or a stateless person from one of these countries;
– The period of studies abroad can not be longer than one academic year or less than three months;
– First-year students can not participate in the ERASMUS programme.
Moreover, such programme students are not obliged to pay fees to the host University. The national scholarship or loan granted to a student for his/her studies at his/her University is not discontinued nor decreased during his/her studies abroad as an ERASMUS student.