Credit points

Credit points are usually referred to as ECTS credits.

In the past, the workload of a teaching unit was expressed in weekly hours or semester hours (SWS), irrespective of whether the teaching unit was a lecture or a seminar.

Today, the amount of work done at home is also added to the weekly hours spent at university. This means that the overall workload can be calculated which is much higher for a seminar than a lecture. The units for measuring student workload are called ECTS credits.

This allows course achievements to be compared and “transferred” to another university or even another country. A Bachelor’s degree program comprises a total of 180 ECTS credits. One ECTS credit corresponds to 25–30 hours of work.