Credit and Grade Transfer within the European Union's SOCRATES Programme: Unity in diversity or head in the sand?

Abstract

Through its financial support of SOCRATES the European Union (EU) actively encourages university students to study for part of their undergraduate degree at a higher educational institution in another EU member state. This period of foreign study is then cross-credited to the home institution as if the study had occurred at the home institution. This paper examines the mechanism that has been created to facilitate credit and grade cross-crediting, the European Credit Transfer Scheme, and questions whether its use is undermined by the cultural and societal differences in assessment that exist across the EU. These are issues are considered from a range of perspectives before a complementary approach to the transfer of credit grades is proposed.