ECTS grading scale

The ECTS grading scale (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System) is a grading system defined in the ECTS framework by the European Commission [http://ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/socrates/ects/index_en.html#5 key features of ECTS] in the European Comission's page on ECTS] . Since many different grading systems co-exist in Europe, and considering that interpretation of grades varies considerably from one country to another, if not from one institution to another, the ECTS grading scale has been developed in order to provide a common currency and facilitate the transfer of students and their grades between European higher education institutions, by allowing the different national and local grading systems to be interchangeable. Grades are reported on a carefully calibrated and uniform A–F scale combined with keywords and short qualitative definitions. Each institution make their own decision on how to apply the ECTS grading scale to their own system.

The ECTS grade is not meant to replace the local grades, but to be used optionally and additionally in order to effectively "translate" and "transcript" a grade from one institution to another. The ECTS grade is indicated alongside the mark awarded by the host institution on the student's transcript of records. The receiving institutions then convert the ECTS grade to their own system. Higher education institutions are recommended (though not forced) to provide ECTS grades for all of their students and to take into account the ECTS grades awarded by other institutions. A certain amount of flexibility is advised, since the ECTS grading scale was designed to improve transparency of a variety of grading systems and cannot, by itself, cover all possible cases.

Description

The ECTS grading scale is based on the class rank of a student in a given assessment, that is how he/she performed relative to other students in the same class (or in a significant group of students). The ECTS system classifies students into broad groups and thus makes interpretation of ranking simpler. This grouping is the core of the ECTS grading system.

The ECTS system initially divides students between pass and fail groups, and then assesses the performance of these two groups separately. Those obtaining passing grades are divided into five subgroups: the best 10% are awarded an A-grade, the next 25% a B-grade, the following 30% a C-grade, the following 25% a D-grade and the final 10% an E-grade.

Those who have not achieved a performance sufficient to allow a passing grade are divided into two subgroups: FX (Fail – some more work required before credit can be awarded) and F (Fail – considerable further work is required). This distinction allows differentiation between those students who have been assessed as almost passing and those who have clearly lacked the required knowledge and skills.

This system can represented in a table, as follows:

References

External links

* [http://www.univ-ab.pt/servicos/rel_inter/gri/ECTS.htm The ECTS grading scale] in Aberta University's website
* cite web
url = http://itext.ugent.be/articles/ects-ict/index.php?page=5
title = ICT for ECTS: ECTS seen from the point of view of a software developer – The ECTS Grading Scale
accessdate = 2007-10-21
last = Lowagie
first = Bruno
year = 2006
month = July
publisher = Ghent University's iText
pages = pp. 5–7
* [http://www.credit.seua.am/ects/scale.html The ECTS Grading Scale] at the State Engineering University of Armenia website
* [http://www.univ-lille1.fr/ri/v2/english_version/pdf/grading_scale.pdf The ECTS Grading Scale] at the University of Lille website
* [http://erasmus.ankara.edu.tr/content/page.php?sec=0051&mid=3&pg=50 ECTS Grading Scale] at the Ankara University website
* [http://www.newdur.ac.uk/international/pages/ects_grading_scale.htm ECTS Grading Scale] at the New College Durham website
* [http://www.tilburguniversity.nl/university/internationalnetwork/ects/gradingsystem/ ECTS Grading System] at the Tilburg University website