Research On Credits Transfer System
25 Aug 2008
Study Hours (SH) and Credits
1) The methodology to calculate the credits various greatly in each Chinese higher education institution.
For instance,
- Peking Uni. and Tianjin University (top 20 Chinese universities) use 15 SH=1 credit. - Fudan Uni. (top 20 Chinese universities) use 18 SH = 1 credit.
- Some use 14.4 SH or 17 SH for one credit. And in some case SH is not the only criteria for setting up credits.
2) The toughness of the textbooks is also taken into account by some Chinese universities.
3) In some of the cases Chinese Study Hours means only Contact Hours (CH—or Lecture Hours). While Dutch Study Hour (SH) may mean Contact Hours (CH) plus self-study hours. That’s why sometimes Dutch SHs is longer than Chinese SHs for one credit.
4) Many Chinese HEIs are adopting another system to evaluate the performance of students. This system is ‘grading scale’ – with which students’ performances are more accurately described. Two of the most important reasons are: firstly, in China as soon as one student is admitted into university/college through national entrance examination (GaoKao) the wash-out rate is very low (less than 2%)—so grading scale becomes another important criteria to evaluate the performances of students; secondly, there is no governmental guidelines for setting up credits module in higher education sector.
Conclusion: the range of SH that equivalent to one credit varies from 14—24 SH for Chinese higher education sector. Study Hours are not the only criteria to set up one credit by some Chinese HEIs.