department of History
roinn na staire

The ECTS System

The European Credit Transfer System is a way of ensuring academic recognition between European institutes of higher education. It is based on a system of credits whereby a full year’s academic programme is worth 60 ECTS credits. A 3-year degree course is therefore worth 180 ECTS.

Students taking a BA at Galway take 30 ECTS per year in each of their two Honours subjects. Each history lecture course in second and final year is worth 5 ECTS. The final-year seminar course is worth 10 ECTS.

The system was developed by the Commission of the European Communities in order to provide common procedures to guarantee academic recognition of studies abroad (e.g. for those taking part in ERASMUS or SOCRATES exchanges). It provides a way of measuring and comparing learning achievements and transferring them from one institution to another. The ECTS system is based on the principle of mutual trust and confidence between the participating higher education institutions. 

The credit value allocated to a course describes the student workload required to complete them. They reflect the total quantity of work required to complete a full year of academic study, that is, lectures, practical work, seminars, private work - in the library or at home, as well as examinations or other assessment activities.

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