Accreditation means that the assessed work undertaken by students during the period abroad is credited as part of the degree programme. The NRAD survey showed that there is a very wide range of practice across the sector. Almost 70% of respondents said that work undertaken during the period abroad was accredited but the details of the credit values in operation revealed no kind of standard pattern, as the following examples show:

Not only is there a huge range of practice across institutions, a considerable range is sometimes to be found within a single institution. Some universities with a large portfolio of courses involving languages spanning several faculties have ten or twelve totally separate systems of accrediting the period abroad. It is clear, too, from the examples given above that institutions use the term 'credit' in different ways, sometimes to indicate the points awarded within a recognised credit accumulation scheme, such as CATS, sometimes to describe the number of their own course units/modules that a student is required to take and/or pass. It would therefore be as well to clarify the workings of the systems most commonly in use.

The Credit Accumulation and Transfer System (CATS)

Virtually all UK HEIs have adopted the Credit Accumulation and Transfer System (CATS) devised in the late 1970s by the former CNAA. This system allocates 'credit points' to units/modules within a first degree programme on the basis of 120 credits per year of study, differentiated according to level (CATS 1, 2 or 3). The standard three-year full-time degree programme thus requires the student to accumulate 360 credits for the award of the degree. The system was intended to facilitate the development of alternative course-structures (part-time, mixed mode, sandwich) and the negotiated transfer of students from one HEI or course to another.

One or two further aspects of the original system of potential interest to language departments are worth mentioning at this point:

1. For the award of a degree, the student is required to accumulate the necessary 360 credits and also to fulfil any specific course requirements. The need to have satisfactorily completed a period of residence abroad could therefore be included in the course regulations. 'Satisfactory completion' could be measured in CATS credits up to a maximum of 120 for a full academic year abroad.
2. Credits are allocated on the basis of the number of units/modules that need to be taken, not passed. So, if only 6 out of a possible 8 units have to be passed to complete a year, each unit (assuming they are all of equal value) is worth 15 credits and successful completion of the year attracts 120 credits, regardless of whether 6, 7 or 8 units have been passed.
3. The award of credits for a unit/module does not depend on the level of performance, provided the minimum standard for a pass has been achieved. A simple pass/fail assessment is therefore all that is strictly necessary for the award of credits.

Since the demise of CNAA, CATS has had no statutory basis and it is therefore open to individual HEIs to interpret or apply it as they see fit. (The Scottish universities have set up a joint system, SCOTCAT, an agreed version of CATS.) Since one of the main functions of CATS is to simplify transfers between institutions, the fundamental principles and basic structure are generally respected but, in more complex areas such as placements, practice has developed piecemeal and now shows significant variation.

In general, where the period abroad is accredited, it receives numerical CATS points in the same way as other parts of the degree programme. However, some institutions distinguish between the kinds of credit awarded for work carried out in the home institution and work undertaken on a placement, including residence abroad.

Some years ago, concern was expressed in some quarters that, with the widespread adoption of CATS-based modular systems in which a universal rule dictated that 360 credits earned an honours degree, it might be possible for a student to claim a degree in languages on the basis of the 360 credits awarded for three years' work, without the need to spend time abroad. That situation has not in fact arisen because, in addition to the minimum number of credits required for the award of a degree, the student also has to satisfy any specific course requirements, of which the satisfactory completion of a period abroad would be one.

The European Credit Transfer System (ECTS)

Increasingly, home institutions are participating in the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS), although there is still evidence of a certain degree of confusion about and even suspicion of it. At the RAM workshops in April and May 1998, participants felt that ECTS was "still very ad hoc" and "general concern about ECTS" was expressed although it was agreed that the issues surrounding ECTS were important and needed to be addressed. The same attitudes were apparent at the RAM workshop held in March 2000.

Figures for the years 1995/96 - 1997/98 published in April 1999 by the UK SOCRATES Bureau show that, in 1997/98, of 3314 language students on SOCRATES exchanges, 867 were having their studies accredited under ECTS, i.e. 26%. The NRAD survey, however, elicited the information that 50% of responding course-leaders claimed to be participating in ECTS. The discrepancy can presumably be explained only partially by the fact that the survey also covered degrees in subjects other than languages, the other factor being that many departments involved in SOCRATES exchanges take note of results expressed in terms of ECTS without necessarily using them as the basis of their own accreditation.

The European Credit Transfer System was initially established under the ERASMUS programme (1989-1995) and was piloted over six years by 145 higher education institutions in all European Union (EU) and EEA countries in the following subject areas: Business administration, Chemistry, History, Mechanical Engineering and Medicine. The scheme has since been extended to other institutions and other disciplines and, in 1999-2000, over 1200 higher education institutions in the EU, EEA, associated countries in central and eastern Europe and Cyprus comprising between 5,000 and 6,000 faculties/departments will be using the ECTS programme.

ECTS is part of a European drive to promote study abroad as a way of improving academic co-operation between institutions of higher education and facilitating student study abroad. The scheme is posited on the view that "studying abroad can be a particularly valuable experience. It is the best way to learn about other countries, ideas, languages and cultures." Moreover, studying abroad is increasingly seen as an important part of professional/academic career development. Although, as has been indicated, ECTS was not designed primarily with language students in mind but ALL students, language students can participate, and increasingly are participating, in the scheme. ECTS allows the students and staff from the home institution to choose study programmes abroad which are relevant to the final degree and importantly offers the possibility of academic recognition of the courses/modules taken abroad. ECTS, then, "provides a way of measuring and comparing learning achievements, and transferring them from one institution to another." Discussions with colleagues in UK language departments indicate that it is issues related to comparison and transference of learning achievements that have generated most concern.

Up-to-date information on the workings of the system can be found on the ECTS website at: http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/socrates/ects.html but it is worth reiterating some of its fundamental principles:

ECTS, like CATS, allows a comparison between modules in terms of anticipated workload expressed in a common currency.

There is no relationship between ECTS credits allocated to a course/module and the level of difficulty of that course/module.

There is no necessary relationship between ECTS credits allocated to a course/module and the number of contact hours allocated to that course/module.

The assessment is undertaken by the host university.

Credit transfer in ECTS is effected by the exchange of transcripts of records between home and host universities. When simple credit transfer is used, the student is awarded a Pass/Fail. The student is given recognition for the credits gained but the marks obtained do not count towards the degree classification. The student transcript can be included in the student profile and the achievements of the period abroad can be incorporated into a student's reference. The identification of courses/modules successfully completed abroad will hopefully enhance employment possibilities. However, there are also possibilities of evaluating student performance and it is to that end that the ECTS Grading Scale has been developed.

The transfer of credits is relatively straightforward. A student studying abroad who is participating fully in the ECTS scheme will, if a full programme of study is successfully completed, be awarded 60 ECTS credits which can easily be converted into the equivalent credits at the home university. However, if the home university wishes to award grades for the work successfully completed abroad, it becomes more complicated. The two questions most frequently raised in this context are:
How does one compare grades awarded by the host university and the home university?
How does one compare the grades awarded by host university X and host university Y?

It should be stressed at this point that the ECTS Grading Scale is underpinned by the principle that the host university is willing to accept grades from partner institutions. Within Europe (and beyond) there is a huge diversity both in the grading systems that exist and in the cultural significance of grades. Furthermore, the significance of a grade may vary considerably from one country to another. For example, the mark of, say, 60% in the UK would usually be viewed as a very respectable mark and, if generalised, would identify the student as a potential Upper Second Class student; in France, the equivalent (12/20) within the French cultural context is less good, in Greece and the Netherlands 6/10 is considered average while in Italy and the USA 18/30 and 60% respectively are considered marginal passes.

There is also considerable diversity within those bodies that fall into the category of "institutions of higher education". Institutions will have different mission statements and may well be aiming for different outcomes. Some, placing the emphasis primarily on the acquisition of "pure" academic skills and knowledge, will see themselves as preparing the next generation of university scholars; others will emphasise skills and knowledge that will prepare students for employment outside the university sector. And there are also differences - even within a single national culture - between subject areas. For example, in the UK it is usually much easier to achieve a high grade (say 85%) in Maths or a Science subject than in a Humanities subject. Yet in Lithuania, the cultural/academic image is reversed and it is the Science subjects which traditionally score lower than Humanities subjects. It is in order to address this bewildering diversity that the ECTS Grading Scale has been devised, based on information, comments and statistical data provided by 80 (of the 84) institutions who participated in the first part of the ECTS pilot scheme.

The ECTS Grading Scale covers five pass categories (A-E). Each category has a descriptor and corresponds to a percentage band of successful students. The grades are as follows:

The combination of a descriptor combined with a numerical definition (referring to the percentage of successful students) helps to overcome the problems of defining what is meant by 'excellent' or 'satisfactory' or 'very good', etc. This problem had been highlighted in a pilot study within one discipline in which some 100 universities participated where it was found that an Italian university placed 42% students in the 'Excellent' category compared with 2% placed in the same category by a Spanish university. The ECTS definition of 'Excellent' as the top 10% of successful students provides all universities participating in ECTS with a common bench-mark for this category as it does for 'Very Good', 'Good' 'Satisfactory' and 'Sufficient'.

The use of the ECTS grade alongside (but not replacing) the mark from the host institution will facilitate the conversion of the mark from the host university onto the grading scheme of the home university.

The conversion of A-E grades on the ECTS scale into their equivalent on the grading scale of the home university is not, and probably cannot be, an exact science. But this comment needs to be seen in the context of assessment as a whole. Even where (as in many universities in the UK) there is an agreed marking-scheme and a system of blind double-marking, assessment is still not an exact science.

There are in existence a number of mark conversion grids. These are not sanctioned by ECTS; they are an attempt to convert marks awarded by HE institutions in one country into equivalent marks for HE institutions of other countries. There are a number of problems with using these conversion grids:

1. There are several in circulation, all different;
2. They do not make allowances for differences in marking conventions and traditions between subjects;
3. They often do not allow for different national traditions of failure rates. For example, a failure rate of 30% in languages is not uncommon in France but is rare in the UK.

A more reliable method of conversion of grades is to use the A-E grades as per the ECTS Grading Scale and the marks obtained by the student in her/his modules/courses. A relatively simple and effective approach is as follows:

1. The home institution undertakes a statistical analysis of the marks obtained by home students within a subject area (e.g. French, Italian, Spanish). Depending on resources available, this might be data from modules taught in Years One, Two and Four, in the preceding academic year or over a number of preceding (academic) years; or it might be data from selected modules or from groups of modules. The aim of this exercise is to assemble data which will give a database of mark distribution within the home institution within a specified subject area.

2. The partner institution(s) are encouraged to do likewise. (NB This will present problems in Germany where, in most institutions of higher education, there is no centralised administration or record-keeping).

3. Using the data gleaned from 1 above, it should be possible to establish the A-E ECTS grading bands for that subject area. It should therefore be straightforward to establish the equivalent range of marks within the home university's marking scheme which corresponds to the A-E grades that the student has been awarded. Similarly, the partner institutions establish for themselves the A-E grading bands using the data from 2 above.

4. On the transcript received from the host institution, the host indicates the ECTS grade for each course unit, alongside the local mark. The home institution then knows the range of its own mark equivalent to that ECTS grade and awards its mark accordingly. If there is any doubt, one should err on the side of generosity since the student has been studying in a new educational environment.

ECTS was developed to improve economic recognition of study abroad through the use of commonly recognised credits. It is a valuable component of the period abroad options in that it allows the home institution to incorporate into the home student's degree profile either credits or grades gained through study in the host institution. If ECTS is adopted as part or all of the programme of study abroad, it has the advantage of providing the student with a clear focus for her/his studies abroad and the knowledge that the student will be assessed by the home institution sharpens this focus and can act as an incentive to the student.