ECTS CREDITS
ECTS Credits Certification
Education Quality Accreditation Commission
ECTS CREDITS CERTIFICATIONS
FOR EUROPEAN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
EQAC, the Education Quality Accreditation Commission, can certify that an educational institution meets the requirements to issue its own ECTS credits. ECTS stands for European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System. See more...
ECTS credits constitute the European system for assessing the workload of a training program with the purpose of facilitating the transfer and mobility of said credits between the institutions that share the ECTS system. All training actions, whether public, private, official or independent, can be expressed in terms of ECTS credits.
In order to issue ECTS credits for a course, subject or study program, the educational institution must demonstrate that the learning objectives and study hours of said training have been met as determined by European legislation.
This compliance process was adopted by the Ministries of Education of the member countries of the European Union in the Bologna Declaration of 1999, which established deadlines for compliance and adaptation of the old training plans of each country to the new ECTS system. Accreditation organizations were created to ensure good compliance and application of the ECTS regulations.
Non-regulated or independent education does not have the obligation to comply with the regulation of official education, which is why it has not been included in this process of adaptation to the ECTS system agreed in the Bologna Declaration. However, non-regulated or independent education institutions can also voluntarily comply with these regulations and be empowered to issue ECTS credits. These credits will have no official value (like their degrees), but the fact that their credits are expressed in terms of ECTS will facilitate their acceptance and recognition in many instances.
EQAC, the Education Quality Accreditation Commission, may advise any educational institution on how to meet the requirements to issue its own ECTS credits. The first step is to obtain EQAC accreditation. This accreditation process is essential to be able to thoroughly understand the educational institution and its training offerings, in order to determine which formal and/or content aspects should be changed or adjusted to comply with European regulations that authorize issuing ECTS credits.
The Education Quality Accreditation Commission may certify the qualification of an institution to issue ECTS credits for any course, training or program of study. In order to obtain this qualification to issue ECTS credits the institution must demonstrate that the corresponding learning outcomes and hours of study hours for the course, training or program of study have been met.
How to qualify to issue ECTS credits?
The first step is to apply for and obtain EQAC accreditation. We cannot help comply with the regulations that allow ECTS credits to be issued if we do not know in depth the educational institution and/or the training it provides.
The educational institution or initiative that aspires to certify ECTS credits must demonstrate through the accreditation application (the self-assessment report) that it meets a series of educational quality standards of the Education Quality Accreditation Commission. Read the information about the accreditation process on our website. See more…
Identify in the application for accreditation that you also want to be certified to issue ECTS credits.
This certification has an additional cost, apart from the cost of accreditation.
Certification to issue ECTS credits:
300 Euros + 1800 Accreditation cost.
Click here to download the Application for Accreditation (Self Assessment Report .docx)
Through this process you will obtain all the benefits of the EQAC accreditation seal plus the certification to issue ECTS credits.
Any educational institution could issue ECTS credits as long as it meets the requirements set by the European Higher Education Area. Issuing ECTS credits does not change the legal status or recognition of the educational institution that issues them. ECTS credits issued by an official institution have official validity, while those issued by non-regulated institutions are considered non-official. However, ECTS credits issued by non-regulated institutions have a better chance of being accepted and valued, as long as they comply with the parameters of the European Higher Education Area. ECTS credits that do not meet these requirements may be considered fraudulent and may lead to legal liability.
The Education Quality Accreditation Commission (EQAC) is not an official institution. EQAC is an independent body that promotes the quality of education and assists educational institutions by establishing good educational standards in the form of accreditation, and also advising on compliance with the parameters for issuing ECTS credits.
Get certified with EQAC Accreditation if you are interested in issuing ECTS credits.
10 IMPORTANT CLARIFICATIONS
1. ECTS: ECTS means European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS). The ECTS are not an organization, they are a directive. Basically 60 ECTS credits are equivalent to a full year of study or work in different cycles of higher education. Read more...
2. E.U. Recognition: The European Union does not issue or recognize ECTS credits. The European Union defines ECTS credits and encourages educational institutions to use this system to facilitate the understanding and acceptance of the study programs completed by students. Read more...
3. Credits: ECTS credits compute the workload (hours of study, training or internships) that the student has to carry out to achieve certain learning outcomes (academic level). Learning outcomes describe what the student should know, understand and be able to do after completing the learning process. The workload indicates the average time that students would need to complete all learning activities (classes, seminars, projects, practices, independent study and exams) that are required to meet these learning outcomes. Read more...
4. Bologna Declaration: The European Union does not have legislative powers in matters of education. The regulation of education in each EU member country is the responsibility of the Ministry of Education or body designated by said country. The Ministers of Education of the various countries in Europe (both from the European Union and from other countries such as Russia or Turkey) committed themselves through the Bologna Declaration, signed in 1999, to transform their outdated educational models that made academic mobility difficult among them, and converge them into a common and single model according to the ECTS credit guidelines, so that everyone could easily understand the academic weight of the studies completed in each country and facilitate the transfer of credits between universities.
5. Official and Non-Official Education: The Bologna Declaration is an agreement, not an institution. The Bologna Declaration is a binding treaty that exclusively affects official education regulated by the ministries of education of each signatory country. Each country has established accreditation entities to control correct adherence to the ECTS system by educational institutions affected by the Bologna Declaration, exclusively official or regulated education, in their respective countries. Non-regulated or Non-Official education was outside its scope of action.
6. European Education Area: As a result of the Bologna process, the European Higher Education Area was created, which would serve as a framework for the educational reforms that many countries and regions would begin in the first years of the 21st century. Non-regulated, independent or non-formal education initiatives were not affected by the Bologna process, but by the legal regulations of their country. In general, these initiatives constitute independent training that has programmatic freedom, which is why they are exempt from complying with the content regulations established by their respective Ministry of Education. In exchange for this academic freedom, their degrees lack the same official recognition as teaching officially regulated by the Ministry of Education.
7. Non-Regulated Education: The European Higher Education Area has recognized the importance of these non-regulated or non-formal education initiatives in society, and recommends the adaptation of ECTS credits for better understanding and acceptance of the training they provide. Ideally, according to the European Higher Education Area, every training system should have its equivalent in ECTS credits (abbreviation for European Credit Transfer System), although this is not normatively required for non-regulated or independent education, which must adopt it voluntarily.
8. EQAC: The Education Quality Accreditation Commission detected the enormous lack of information regarding ECTS regulations that non-regulated, independent or non-formal education initiatives suffer from. For this reason, EQAC decided to use its own accreditation mechanism to gain a deeper understanding of these non-regulated, independent or non-formal education initiatives that seek to issue their own ECTS credits and help them complete the adjustments and adaptations necessary to comply with the regulations established by the European Higher Education Area.
9. Issuing ECTS Credits: Expressing training in terms of ECTS credits does not change its nature or characteristics. That is, teaching that is not official does not become official by issuing ECTS. ECTS credits are official when they are issued by an officially recognized institution or program, and they are unofficial when they are issued by non-regulated, independent or non-formal training. But in both cases, they are ECTS credits and are much more compatible with each other than if they were not, which facilitates their recognition and acceptance by third parties.
10. Using ECTS Credits: The use of ECTS credits does not imply the mandatory and automatic approval or acceptance of said credits by any institution or body. Each institution or educational program is free to accept and validate ECTS credits obtained in other institutions, however the fact that training is expressed in ECTS credits facilitates its understanding and potential recognition.
If you are interested in learning more about Quality in Education processes, we recommend that you read our section on this topic. See more...
Get certified by EQAC if you are interested in issuing ECTS credits.
