WHAT IS THE ERASMUS PROGRAMME?

The Erasmus programme is an education programme of the EU for promoting multilateral cooperation between the higher education institutions in Europe. It provides a complimentary financial support –as grant- for higher education institutions to create and realize their mutual projects, exchange students, administrative and academic personnel. This programme was named after the Dutch scientist Erasmus (1469-1536) who was one of the important representatives of the Renaissance Humanism, because of the fact that he stayed in different European countries both as a student and academician.

WHAT IS NOT THE ERASMUS PROGRAMME?

• The Erasmus Programme is not a “foreign language learning programme”.
• The Erasmus Programme is not exactly a “scholarship” programme.
• The Erasmus Programme is not a “diploma” programme.
• The Erasmus Programme is not a “research” programme.

ERASMUS: ADVANTAGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

• Flexibility: Taking into account the importance of flexibility in today’s world, the advantage of the programme enabling flexibility in educational life can be understood clearly: to prepare students for their professional lives. The best preparation for the modern professional life, which requires adaptation to new conditions constantly, is to experience adaptation to new conditions also in educational life.
• Adaptability: The development of adaptability has also an important role in the preparation for professional life. The key determinants of success in today’s professional life include competences as working in a foreign country, adapting to its culture and advanced knowledge of foreign language. Even if you are sure that you will do the same work after graduation for a long time, Erasmus is offering you a priceless opportunity in developing your social adaptability because of the fact that you will have to enter into a dialogue with foreign cultures within the scope of this work, too.
• Maturity: Living and working in another country, being engaged in its administrative process and bureaucracy, meeting the European bureaucracy by filling tens of forms and completing all these procedures successfully will enhance your self-confidence. In addition, the experiences you gained will contribute to your maturity in an important way.
• Career: After you met the term flexibility in higher education, developed your adaptability and reached the required maturity level, the advantages you will have in the entrance to professional life are clear. The new lines you will add into your CV by gaining experiences abroad will enrich the studies in the countries participating in the programme and your professional life with new pages after graduation and the mutual exchange of educators in Europe!

AIM OF THE PROGRAMME

The aim of the programme is to improve the quality of higher education in Europe and strengthen the dimension of it. This aim can be summarized as offering good practices in Europe’s different countries for the benefit of the whole. The Erasmus programme is trying to fulfill the stated aims by promoting intercountry cooperation between universities, recognizing students’ degrees academically and contributing to the development of transparency.

ECTS Users’ Guide

Bologna Process Implementation Report

European Credit Transfer System (ECTS)

ECTS(European Credit Transfer System) is an academic equivalance system which is supported by Erasmus Programme, and its objective is to provide that the grades of exchange students studying at different countries’ educational institutions are mutually and fairly acknowledged by the related institutions. The long term objective of this system is to provide a european-wide standardization in grade and credit matters. Therefore it empowers the educational part of the European integration.

In this regard European Credit Transfer System is qualified as a “common language” in the field of higher education in Europe. When academicians apply ECTS to their courses they have to inspect the course content because according to ECTS principles while applying new credit system they are obliged to take student’s studying hours, complexity of the course, learning targets and the occupational contribution of the course to the student into consideration. This obligation results in renewal of the course intent and higher education quality.

How to apply ECTS?

The basic tools below are used applying ECTS.

Training Manual(ECTS Information Package): This information package is prepared collectively by related people both from central level and faculty and departments , it includes every academic and social information that an exchange student would need. Therefore it should also include detailed information about ECTS and how to aplly it. Besides deparments which join student exchange programme should add information to this manual, about how a course is teached, ECTS credits of that course, course content and other necessary information, for each course.

Application Form: Application form is filled by the student who is willing to join the exchange programme and it gives information about students’ academic and social competence.

Learning Agreement: Learning Agreement is a triple alliance between the student, his/her institution and the institution which the student would get education. Learning Agreement provides equivalance of the courses that the student have to take abroad and courses back at his/her own institution.

ECTS Transcript: ECTS Transcript shows  an exchange student’s success both before going abroad and after turning back. The courses’ credits which are taken abroad are identified both as local grades and ECTS’s standard system and are shown on this transcript.

ECTS Grading System

European Credit Transfer System is divided into two basic fields in practice:

ECTS Credit: This topic is the most important subject for ECTS. According to this the basic rule for the intutions which would join ECTS is the total credits of all courses in a year must be 60.  In this condition each semester the number of the obligatory credits would be 30. At this point we see that another important issue is that the criterion in determining the credit amount is “work load”. The work load of a course is determined by looking at: weekly course hours, seminars, practice implementation, fieldworks, research projects, thesis, individual studying at home or in a library.

All of these criterions are used in determining the credit amount of any course, therefore, for instance when a course’s weekly hours are low but it requires lots of individual studying, then its credit could be higher than another course which have more weekly hours. In other words the important point is to being fair as much as possible while determining the credit amounts.

ECTS Grading System: The most common difficulty in applying exchange programme in higher education field is that students’ success are evaluated in a different way by different countries’ educational institutions. Consequently students are sometimes aggrieved when they come back home. In order to overcome this problem a system is created, aiming transparency in grading. According to that it is agreed on the numbers on the chart below.

The grading system on the chart below is not explaining an intervention to the grading systems of educational institutions. Higher education institutions decide on how to apply ECTS grading system on their own.

Chart 5 : ECTS Grading System

Other than this basic grading system, the national grading systems of European countries are as in the chart below:

Chart 6: National Grading System of European Countries

*Percentage of the successful students.

**Percentages for Spanish are different.
There are few problems about implanting and being interpreted of ECTS. The facts that there are no credit systems in many European countries and that  they get to know credit system owing to ECTS, that there are differences between higher education systems, grading and evaluation systems are posing an obstacle to adopt and implement ECTS. However in accordance with the agreed objectives until 2012 in Bologna Declaration; proliferation of the implementation of ECTS, reducing the bachelor period from 4 to 3 years, Diploma Supplement which allows degrees’ recognition, harmonizing the educational systems are crucial studies in order to popularize ECTS.

ERASMUS CHARTER FOR HIGHER EDUCATION  2021-2027

ERASMUS POLICY STATEMENT

ERASMUS CHARTER FOR HIGHER EDUCATION  2014-2020

ERASMUS POLICY STATEMENT