I. POLICY PURPOSE

1. The Office of Strategic Advancement plays a crucial role in fostering connections between The American University of Science ("AUS", "University", "university") and partner institutions and approved education abroad programs worldwide, providing students with valuable opportunities to broaden their horizons through international education. Given the vast differences in education systems across the globe, it is often necessary to convert credit hours earned at a partner institution or abroad program to a US format for use at AUS. Fortunately, there are widely recognized guidelines for how US institutions of higher learning award credit from foreign institutions, such as the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS), which European institutions use to standardize credit units. Generally, US institutions award one credit hour for every two ECTS credits earned at a European institution.

2. At AUS, full-time enrollment is typically measured by the number of credit hours taken per semester, whereas European institutions use ECTS credits to measure full-time attendance. Nonetheless, AUS recognizes that full-time enrollment at an exchange partner institution is equivalent to full-time attendance at AUS, and this policy outlines how ECTS credit hours will be assessed and equated to AUS credit hours.

II. POLICY APPLICABILITY

The policy applies to all students and academic staff.

III. POLICY STATEMENT

A. Definitions

1. ECTS : the European Credit Transfer System was developed by the European Commission to establish a framework through which student workload at institutions across Europe can be commonly quantified.

2. The National Council on the Evaluation of Foreign Academic Credentials has provided the following information on the ECTS system.

"ECTS credit has the following characteristics:

One ECTS credit represents between 24 and 30 hours.
ECTS credits are awarded only upon the completion of work and the assessment of that work.
Work may be completed through a variety of methods and is not expressed solely in terms of contact hours.

Council recommendation:

One ECTS credit is comparable to one half (.50) semester credit [.75 quarter credit]."

B. Principles

1. AUS maintains global partnerships.

2. AUS must ensure that academic work at partner institutions is recognized as academic work at AUS.

3. Syllabi vary greatly from country to country, and even among institutions within a country.

4. Syllabi vary in different systems and, therefore, should not be the sole basis upon which a course equivalency is determined.

5. ECTS credits are an internationally recognized measure of coursework and, therefore, serve as the basis upon which AUS equivalent credit will be assigned.

C. Criteria for assigning AUS credit hours to courses taken abroad and reported in ECTS credit hours

ECTS credit hours should be divided by 2 to determine the standard US equivalent credit amount.