Going Abroad

• 24/7 BuZa Contact Centre: +31 247 247 247
• Local embassy/ consulate
• UT’s insurance insurance@utwente.nl (Hienfeld: +31 205 469 469)
• Your own travel insurance’s emergency number

Using Table*

In the case in a country, ECTS credits are given (See Table 1: Countries using ECTS) the credits can be taken over 1 on 1. If the country where the credits are obtained isn’t one of the ECTS using countries, please check if the institution is being mentioned in Table 2: Credit Conversion Table of Non-ECTS Credits. If this is the case, please use the conversion given in that table.
If not, you can contact the coordinators of international affairs at your faculty. They might be able to help to give an estimation of the study load.
*Be aware! The conversions in the tables are an advised standard. An examination committee may decide to deviate.

Table 1: Countries using ECTS 

N.B. United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, the calculation of the study load is compatible with the ECTS-system. Still, the study load is 120 credits per academic year. 2 UK credits are equal to 1 ECTS-credit.

Tabel 2: Credit Conversion Table of Non-ECTS credits

Last update: November 7, 2023

Still updates needed on: ITA, University of Regina, PUC Chile, Amrita, KIST, Makarere University, NJ Institute of Technology and Southern Utah University. Questions are set out with UT staff connected with these universities. 

Increasing amount of outgoing exchange students
The amount of students going abroad for exchange during the 5th semester (minor) is substantially increasing. In UT’s Vision Shaping 2030, there is a specific emphasis on internationalization. In “Vision 2030 - Shaping”, ‘Students experience studying and working abroad’ is specifically stressed.

Registration of externally obtained credits
Upon return, the credits obtained during the exchange semester abroad have to be registered into the Student Information System, Osiris. Credits obtained at EU Partner Universities that work with the ECTS system can be transferred without conversion according to the Erasmus+ and the Bologna framework. The conversion of credits obtained at foreign universities that do not use the ECTS system is time-consuming and difficult.

An uniform conversion of credits
Up till this point, there is no uniform credit conversion table for credits obtained at foreign partner universities that do not work according to the ECTS system. Also, there was no standardised procedure about the process of and conditions applying to credit transfer which need to be considered. To avoid differences in the calculation of obtained credits at non-EU Partner Universities, the UCO decided, based upon advice from the Platform Internationalisation, to create one uniform credit conversion table and a person responsible for maintaining the table.

The credit conversion table is meant to aid the Examination Boards of educational programmes within the University of Twente. Students can use the table as a guide to check if their proposed exchange courses represent enough workload.

All UT bachelor and master educational programmes have their own rules and regulations when studying abroad. Most of the programmes ask the student to hand in (some sort of) a Learning Agreement and have it carefully looked at by the examination board, as is obligatory in exchange for an Erasmus+ partner. The Learning Agreement consists of the courses a student wants to take up, the level of the courses and the number of grades the courses will be awarded. Examination Boards can use the ‘Credit Conversion Table’ to determine the number of ECTS to which the completed course(s) c.q. project(s) should be converted into upon return.

The exam committees can always decide to deviate from the conversion in the table.

Results won't be converted
UCOW also agreed upon the advice to only transfer credits and not the results (grades or letters). Conversion of results is a delicate procedure and rather difficult as other assessment methods should be taken into account and cultural and local habits regarding grading. Just the credits will be converted and registered in SIS as ‘V’ (pass). The student always has to possibility to request an official Transcript of Records, which includes the official results provided by the Partner University.

The data (conversion methods) given in this table has been composed by a -for this purpose created-committee of UT employees in the fields of internationalisation, exchange, strategy and policy, and educational affairs. The conversion methods within this table result from:

• The partner institution gives data. In case this institution was able to provide us with proper conversion. 
• Calculation based on workload. In this case, we look at the number of credits per academic year of the partner institution. This was compared to the 60 credits of the ECTS system for an academic year. However, in the Netherlands, 60 credits equal a workload of 1680 hours, and at a foreign partner, this amount can differ, and, i.e. only be 1200 hours. With the conversion also a correction of the workload in clock hours is taken into account.
• For questions about conversion, you can contact the faculties exchange contact.

Conversion of workload
ECTS credits are related to study workload and do not provide information about the quality level of education. Deriving from that, the conversion from NON-ECTS credits to ECTS credits is also only a conversion from the workload. When the examination board examines the courses that an exchange student wishes to follow abroad, the examination board needs to judge the number of credits and the quality level of the courses.

Additions and Maintenance
Recurrently, additions to this table will be made, and current conversion methods will be checked upon and, if needed, adjusted. For conversions of credits from partner universities missing in the table, you can contact the faculties exchange contact.

Within the table will be mentioned when the latest update of the table was made.