ECTS Credits to Hours Calculator

ECTS credits

Hours per credit

25–30 in the EU; a Russian credit unit is 36 academic hours.

Weeks in the semester

Contact hours, %

Result

Total hours810
Contact hours324
Self-study hours486
Hours a week45
Hours a study day9
In academic hours1,080

A credit measures time, not difficulty

Converts credits into study hours, splits them into contact and self-study time, and gives the weekly load.

An ECTS credit is a measure of workload: 25 to 30 hours of student work, covering lectures, seminars, assignments and exam preparation. A year of study is 60 credits by definition, which is 1,500 to 1,800 hours.

In Russia a credit unit is tied to 36 academic hours, and an academic hour is 45 minutes. That makes direct comparison with ECTS slightly out, so the calculator reports both figures.

What this calculator shows

Total workload in hours and in academic hours
The split between contact time and self-study
The load per week and per study day

What to keep in mind

The default is 27 hours per credit, the middle of the European range.
An academic hour is 45 minutes, so converting from clock hours uses a factor of 60/45.

FAQs

How many hours is one ECTS credit?

25 to 30 depending on the country. A year of study is 60 credits, or 1,500 to 1,800 hours of work.

How does a Russian credit unit differ?

It equals 36 academic hours, which is 27 clock hours. Numerically close to ECTS, but derived from a different base.

What counts towards workload?

All of a student's time: lectures, seminars, labs, assignments, coursework and exam preparation. Contact hours are usually a third to a half.

How many credits is a semester?

Thirty at a standard load. Two semesters make sixty — that is a definition rather than an average.

Worked example

An ordinary semester

Input: 30 credits at 27 hours, 18 weeks, 40% contact time

Output: 810 hours, 324 of them contact, 45 hours a week

Note: Forty-five hours a week is a full working load, and that is exactly what ECTS was designed to represent. A sense that study 'takes less' usually means the self-study half is not happening.

Useful links

All tools in Study

ECTS Credits to Hours Calculator

Result

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