The European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) governs the accumulation and recognition of academic achievements during scheduled study programmes and placements abroad (particularly in other EU countries).

ECTS is intended to help make studying abroad more transparent and comparable for students and to improve the recognition of academic achievements by the home university.

The ECTS system assumes that the workload of full-time students during an academic year yields 60 ECTS credits (30 credits per semester). One credit corresponds to between 25 and 30 hours of work (including lectures, seminars, independent study, preparation for and participation in exams).

The study programme at the host university should be coordinated with the ECTS representative.

Any questions regarding recognition should be dealt with in conjunction with the responsible ECTS representative before leaving for your placement abroad. The latter is usually also responsible for signing your Learning Agreement.

As part of the ECTS process, a study plan, known as a Learning Agreement, is drawn up, which - particularly in the case of study placements at host universities - ensures the recognition of academic achievements in advance through agreements with the home and host universities.

Every student wishing to have the academic achievements attained by them abroad recognised by their home university must draw up a Learning Agreement in plenty time before the start of their study placement abroad and have it signed by the ECTS representative.

In the case of an Erasmus+ study placement abroad or a semester abroad as part of the Promos or other DAAD programme, it is mandatory to draw up a Learning Agreement in plenty of time before commencing your placement. In the case of other placements abroad the “Learning Agreement” should also be prepared before the start of the stay, in order enable the subsequent recognition of foreign academic achievements by Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences.

The “Learning Agreement” must be signed by three parties (the student, the home university and the host university) and once signed is considered to be a legally binding document.

Any changes that need to be made at short notice can be recorded on the “changes to original proposed study” form and must be signed by all three parties within one month from the commencement of studies.

The recognition of academic achievements attained abroad requires students to have their achievements confirmed by the host university by means of an official “Transcript of Records”.

Furthermore the courses to be completed must be set out in the Learning Agreement prior to travelling abroad and must be signed by the student, the department(s) (by the ECTS representative responsible for recognition) and the host university.