E C T S - I. INDRODUCTION

ECTS, the European Credit Transfer System, was developed by the Commission of the European Community to provide for the same procedures to be followed in all EC countries when a person's academic qualifications are being evaluated. The system provides a way of measuring and comparing academic achievement, and also of transfering credits from one institution to another.

The ECTS system is based on the mutual confidence that exists between the participating institutions. The few rules of the ECTS concern the scope of information to be provided on the available courses, the conditions for agreement between the home and host institutions, and the use of credit points to quantify student workload. Thus, each ECTS department must publish information about the contents of courses and also their ECTS credit value. This is the primary purpose of this webpages, and is fulfilled in Part III.

B. The ECTS Credits

ECTS credits are a numerical value allocated to course units to measure the student workload required to complete them. They reflect the quantity of work which each course unit requires in relation to the total quantity of work necessary to complete a full year of academic study at the institution, including lectures, practical work, seminars, tutorials, field work, private work- in the library or at home- and examinations or other assessment activities. ECTS credits reflect a relative value of student workload.

In ECTS, 60 credits represent the workload of one academic year of study; and usually 30 credits are given for a semester (6 months). It is important that no special courses be set up for satisfying ECTS requirements, but that all ECTS courses are mainstream courses of the participating institutions, as taken by home students under normal circumstances.

The individual participating institutions then subdivide the credits for their different courses as they see fit. Laboratory sessions and electives that form an integral part of the major course of study also receive academic credit, but those outside the major do not.

Credits are awarded only if the courses have been completed and all required examinations have been passed successfully.

C. ECTS Students

Students participating in ECTS will receive full credit for all academic work successfully carried out at any of the ECTS partner institutions, and they will be able to transfer these academic credits from one participating institution to another as long as there is prior agreement between the institutions involved.

Most students participating in the ECTS enroll in one host institution of an EC Member State or EFTA country for a limited period, and then return to their home institution. Some decide to stay at the host institution and finish their degree there. Others proceed to a third institution to continue their studies. In any case, all students are required to comply with the legal requirements of the country and academic requirements of the institution from which they graduate.

That is, for those students who return to their home institution, there are no delays in progress toward graduation after the program of study abroad (previously agreed upon by the home and host institutions) is completed. On the other hand, if a student decides to stay at the host institution to complete a degree, he or she may have to adapt the program of study to meet legal and academic regulations of the host country and institution.

All students of participating departments are eligible if they meet the requirements detailed below. Students selected by an ECTS institution can receive a student mobility grant (ERASMUS) only if they fulfill the general conditions of eligibility:

students must be citizens of an EC Member State or of an EFTA country (or they must be recognized by one Member State or one EFTA country as having official status as a refugee, stateless person, or permanent resident);
students who are EFTA nationals must move from their EFTA home country to an EC Member State. EFTA nationals who are registered as students in ECTS institutions in other EFTA countries or in Community Member States are eligible for participating in the ECTS only if they have established permanent residency;
the study period abroad must be not less than three months nor no more than one year;
first-year students are not eligible.

Students are not required to pay tuition fees at the host institution; however, they may be required to continue to pay normal tuition fees at the home institution during the period of study abroad.

If a student receives a national grant (e.g., "BaföG" in the Federal Republic Germany) it will not be discontinued, interrupted, or reduced while the student is studying in another Member State or receiving an ERASMUS grant.

For further details on the ECTS, please consult the ECTS Brochure available from

ECTS Department, Erasmus Bureau, Rue Montoyer 70, B-1040 Brüssel,
phone : 0032-2-233 01 11; fax : 0032-2-233 01 50

D. Participating Institutions

The TU Chemnitz is one of 180 universities in 28 European countries participating in the "European Mobility Scheme for Physics Students (EMSjS) of the European Physics Society (EPS). This scheme was the result of a multilateral agreement reached upon at the Convention of **** and is completely consistent with the principles of the Socrates program. EMSjS was developed to allow physics students to study abroad at a university of their choice without being put at a monetary or academic disadvantage as a result.

Given the successful growth of EMSjS in the past few years, the faculty of the Department of Natural Sciences at the TU Chemnitz is fully committed to the promotion and continuation of this program of international cooperation, within the Socrates Program.