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About this tool
Plan how many ECTS credits you need per semester to finish your degree, with workload hours from the ECTS Users' Guide.
This planner calculates how many ECTS credits you must earn in each remaining semester to graduate on time, and converts that load into study hours using the ECTS Users' Guide standard of 60 credits per academic year, 30 per full-time semester and 25-30 workload hours per credit. It flags plans that exceed the standard 30-ECTS semester as overloads. It is built for students at European universities balancing course selection, thesis semesters and part-time work.
Open ECTS Credit Load Calculator on AltFTool — it loads instantly in your browser.
Enter the values you already know.
Fine-tune the options to match your scenario.
Read the result and use it in your planning or reporting.
Uses the Users' Guide standards: 60 ECTS/year, 30/semester, 25-30 hours per credit.
Translates credits into hours per semester and per week you can sanity-check against your calendar.
Anything above 30 ECTS per semester is flagged so you can plan an extra term instead.
60 ECTS per academic year, which is 30 ECTS per semester — this is the definition in the European Commission's ECTS Users' Guide. Registering for more than 30 in a semester is an overload that many universities require special approval for.
25 to 30 hours of total workload per credit under the ECTS Users' Guide, counting lectures, seminars, self-study and exams. A standard 30-ECTS semester therefore represents roughly 750-900 hours, or about 40-45 hours per week across a 20-week semester.
A Bologna bachelor's requires 180 ECTS (3 years) or 240 ECTS (4 years), and a master's requires 60-120 ECTS depending on length. A combined bachelor-plus-master pathway totals at least 300 ECTS in most countries.
Often yes, but with limits — many universities cap registration around 35-42 ECTS or require dean's approval above the standard 30. Before planning an overload semester, check your examination regulations; spreading credits into a summer term is frequently the safer route.
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