Credits

A credit is a unit that gives weight to the value, level or time requirements of an educational programme.

A credit reflects how much time an average student spends on learning the offered material, doing tasks, answering questions, reading additional literature, browsing web resources, etc. Both contact hours spent on class and homework are considered.

At HSE, one credit is equal to 38 academic hours. One academic hour at HSE constitutes 40 minutes. Thus, one credit is a little more than 25 astronomical hours.

The volume of any element of a given curriculum is measured in credits. Information about the volume of elements in a curriculum is displayed in curricula tables and HSE’s course catalog.

For example, an average student will spend about five full days for course work, assessed in five credits in the curriculum (25*5=125 hours).

Credits are awarded to a student if he/she receives positive grades for studying an academic discipline, carrying out course work, projects, etc.

The standard volume of one academic year of a higher education programme comes to 60 credits.

A student shall obtain a Master’s degree if he/she is awarded at least 120 credits. A Bachelor’s degree is awarded to students who received 240 credits during their studies at HSE.

Measurements of educational programme elements in credits are used in all developed education systems around the world. The main purpose of introducing a universal unit of measurement is to help students build their respective education trajectories. A universal system allows for comparing and accepting a student’s education results, which he/she received in another university or another country.

The Russian Federation applies the most common system in Europe - ECTS (the European Credit Transfer System). Our credits are comparable in duration and implication (i.e., registration of a student’s entire academic work in class and at home) with European universities.

Furthermore, HSE provides credits to students studying at international universities as part of academic mobility programmes and/or taking part in MOOCs of leading world universities.