The European Credit Transfer System and curriculum design: product before process?

Abstract

This article critically considers the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) from the perspectives of outcomes-based education and the alternative process model of curriculum design. The uses of ECTS to ensure quality control and accountability and promote international student mobility are discussed. The article concludes with a discussion of the purposes of a university education, and calls for evidence-informed debate in relation to models of curriculum design for higher education.

Keywords:

• outcomes-based learning
• Bologna process
• curriculum design
• accountability
• quality assurance

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to acknowledge the helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper provided by Dr Paul Conway, University College, Cork; Professor Gary Granville, National College of Art and Design, Dublin; Dr Gerry Jeffers, NUI Maynooth; and Janet Moody and Dr John O’Reilly, University of Limerick.