ECTS Calculation

At University of Zakho the ECTS for any module can be calculated based on hours that can be performed by students as a Student WorkLoad (SWL). This is categorized by three main categories: Contact hours and study time(1), Assignments (2), and Assessment & Exam Preparation(3) (Figure 2). 

Figure 2: Calculation of ECTS based on three categories

Contact hours and study time

This category includes several sections that can be considered for calculation of ECTS. They are:

  • Module Hours (Per-Week)
  • Laboratory (Per-Week)
  • Tutorial (Per-Week)
  • Presentations or Seminar (Per-Semester)
  • Field Work (Per-Semester)
  • Self-Study (Preparation) (Per-Week)
  • Other (Per-Semester)
Each section has it is own required time that is going to be multiplied by a weight in order to calculate the total hours that students need to spend within this category. An Example is shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Example of contact hours for a module with grades

Assignments

This category also includes some other section as (Figure 4): 

  • Homework
  • Assignments
  • Project
  • Report
Figure 4: Example of Assignments for a module with grades

Assessment & Exam Preperation

This has three main sections (Figure 5). Ther are:

  • Quizzes
  • Mid-term Exam
  • Final Exam
Figure 5: Example of Assignments for a module with grades

Therefore, the total calulated hours in all categories will be summed-up and then divided by 25 (as each ECTS corresponds to 25 hours). Doing this, the ECTS of a module will be known. 

Below is an example of calculating ECTS for a Linear Algebra module (Figure 5).


Figure 6: Example of Calculating ECTS for a Linear Algebra module with grades



For more information visit the University of Zakho