Bulgarian students will now have a chance to succeed with their local qualifications in other EU countries. Photo by ehse.org
Bulgaria has joined the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS), a university network of 14 countries that will make it easier for Bulgarian students to transfer academic credits from one educational institution to another, both within Bulgaria and from Bulgaria across the European Union, Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) reported late Friday.
This system has already been joined by Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia. It is a part of the Central European Exchange Program for University Studies.
Currently, the system means that an academic year corresponds to 60 ECTS credits, which itself would correspond to 1500-1800 hours of academic courses. The system will be standardized for all EU member states and it will be used to facilitate transfer of credits from one academic institution to another, thus easing academic progression through the European Union.
ECTS has been designated as a standard for comparing the study attainments and performance of students of higher education establishments in the EU and participating non-EU countries. Upon successfully completed academic courses, students can choose to be rewarded with a European-accredited ECTS report.
ECTS also includes a standard grading scale, intended to be shown in addition to local or national standard grades.