ECTS Grading System
The ECTS tables and grading scale are tools designed to facilitate the transfer of academic results, typically grades, between different national grading systems within the European Higher Education Area. The conversions of the grades from one country/university into the grades used in another country follows some common rules and is therefore facilitated.
In compliance with the ECTS Users' guide 2015, the University of Namur publishes the ECTS tables that contain the statistical distribution of grades achieved by homogeneous groups of students. The distinction between the different groups is based on the ISCED fields of study. UNamur has opted for a 1-digit approach (ISCED fields of study), with few exceptions. Within each field of study, grades are presented by cycle (first and second) and in a cumulative way, since for some programmes the number of second cycle students is relatively limited.
The ECTS tables contain the following information:
- For each grade, given according to the Belgian grading system, the percentage of grades obtained by students it in a given timeframe (typically, the previous 3 years).
- For each grade the cumulated percentages of grades obtained by students in a given timeframe
- For each grade a correspondence with the ECTS scale defined according to the following distribution :
- grade A corresponds to the grades obtained by the best 10% of students;
- grade B corresponds to the grades obtained by the next 25% of students;
- grade C corresponds to the grades obtained by the next 30% of students;
- grade D corresponds to the grades obtained by the next 25% of students;
- grade E corresponds to the grades obtained by the final 10% of students.
The ECTS scale is used only as a reference for the conversion of the grades obtained at institutions that have not yet adopted the ECTS tables.
It is important to note that the ECTS scale allows the transfer of votes only among universities of countries belonging to the European Higher Education Area that have adopted the same ECTS scale, which is of course different from the evaluation systems using letters of the alphabet.
Specific conversion mechanisms and methods exist between universities outside the European Higher Education Area. Often, such mechanisms are discussed on a bilateral basis when the bilateral exchange agreements are signed.
