Tillgodoräknande

What credits can I transfer?

General requirements

We have only a few, simple, general requirements and rules for credit transfer and they apply as a basis for all credit transfer. If you’re sending coordinator is from the Department of Political Sceince, you’re as outgoing student responsible for having knowledge of these rules.

An important principle for credit transfer is that the courses should not overlap with courses already completed or courses to be attended in future (if in doubt, check and compare with the course syllabi on our homepage). The courses should be academic in nature and reasonably compatible with our department’s competences (see more under 3. below). We do not transfer credits for language studies

It is mandatory to enter in agreeement what courses you’re taking during your exchange stay. The agreement is called a Learning Agreement (see more under Before Departure)

Up to now, our students heading abroad have not had any major problems, but you are of course welcome to get back to us before you set out if something is unclear with regard to what you can study and what credits you can transfer from your host university.

Requirements and rules for credit transfer

Below, you will find the basis for credit transfer to the Department of Political Science for exchange students at Lund University and for students travelling abroad for independent study.

1. Credit transfer as optional credits 

* Study results from higher education institutions abroad that are government approved and accredited according to a recognised accreditation institute. Your credits from studies abroad are normally transferred as so-called optional credits and do not replace any mandatory courses from Lund.

2. The number of credits in your degree varies according to the Study Ordinance

* For degrees covered by the new Ordinance (as of the autumn semester 2007): the System of Qualifications for 2007 stipulates that degrees are to include an exact number of credits - 180 credits for a Bachelor’s degree and 60/120 credits for a one/two year Master’s degree respectively.

* For degrees covered by the old Ordinance (up to end of June 2015): for degrees covered by the previous Degree Ordinance, the rate applied is at least 180 credits for a Bachelor’s degree and at least 240 credits for a one-year Master’s degree. You can have more credits in your degree certificate than the number required and you can get all your courses included in a single document. It is only when you obtain your degree that you specify which courses you wish to include in your degree credits and which you would like to list as additional credits. The condition is that you satisfy the degree requirements for the various Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees respectively.

There is no lower limit to the transfer of credits from a course completed abroad to a degree in the old Ordinance. Decimals are applied.

3. Underlying principles for credit transfer

* Academic subject

The courses must refer to an academic subject, i.e. credits from courses of a so-called personal development character cannot be transferred (for example, oenology, oral language courses, sports, salsa, etc.). Courses of a skills-development nature must have a clear political science orientation in order to allow credit transfer. This is only permitted to a very limited extent.

* Only credits from entire, completed and passed courses at university level abroad can be transferred. Credits from individual passed elements or obligatory exercises from modules or from entire courses cannot be transferred.

All courses must be completed in the host country. They cannot be replaced or completed by any element or part of a Swedish course and students cannot be formally examined in these courses at Lund University. If any part of a course is missing at the time of the student’s return, the re-sit cannot take place in Lund.

The students must have passed an examination in each course, i.e. courses in which the student only “participated” cannot give rise to credit transfer. The student must have passed all courses. A course with a grade under the pass level cannot be counted as passed even if the average for all courses is above or equal to a pass level.

* If the Department of Poltical Science is academically responsible for your exchange stay, you’re expected to take classes within a subject span that can be regarded as being within our field of competence. For example courses in International Relations, Public Administration, Gender Studies and Peace- and Conflict Studies are unproblematic. Courses that are closer to Sociology, Macro Economics, Psychology and Geography are often approved but we might need to ask for the course syllabi before approval. Courses in Business Administration are as a rule not accepted for transfer by us. Sports courses och aestetical courses such as Cinema and Dance are in a similar manner not subject for credit transfer by us. 

* Courses may not overlap

Courses with a common content (overlapping credits) are calculated in a degree in such a way as to count the common credits only once. It is therefore important that you make sure that your studies abroad do not reproduce earlier courses you have attended or courses you will attend in future.

* Courses at the Freshman level in the USA do not normally give rise to credit transfer

A Bachelor’s degree in the USA normally takes 4 years. The courses in the first year (Freshman year) are at the 100 or 1000 level and credits from these are not usually transferred. Within the University of California, courses in the Freshman year are usually indicated by the number 1-99.

* Language courses

Language courses which are provided at higher education institutions abroad or language courses that are provided as special courses for exchange students do not normally give rise to credit transfer in the Department of Political Science.

* Degree projects do not give rise to credit transfer

Degree projects, i.e. the seminar element at the Bachelor’s and one- and two-year Master’s levels, must be produced in Lund and cannot be replaced with another degree project/assignment produced at a higher education institution abroad.

* Courses at Master’s (one- and two-year) level (Second cycle)

It is extremely rare for courses abroad to be judged equivalent to our second cycle political science courses (one- and two-year Master’s); credit transfer from such courses abroad is not accepted as a replacement for courses in Lund at that level.

* Courses abroad can provide subsequent eligibility for studies at a higher level

Courses taken abroad can later give rise to credit transfer as courses at Bachelor’s degree level in connection with assessment of eligibility in view of a Bachelor’s degree project.

 4. What is required for 30 credits in Lund?

For credit transfer equivalent to 30 Swedish higher education credits, we base the calculation on how many credits are needed to achieve a Bachelor’s/Master’s degree in the host country’s credit system. We divide these credits by the number of years to find a conversion key allowing us to figure out how many local credits correspond to a year of study in Sweden.

Please note that what is specified as the minimum requirement at the host university is most often to be considered as the requirement to move up the following semester and is not to be confused with the requirement for credit transfer of one’s studies equivalent to a full time semester with 30 credits.

Sometimes the semesters abroad are shorter than ours; the host university may have a system of three terms, etc, which means that you may sometimes have to study more than what a local student would have to cover during the same semester in order to meet your 30 credit requirement.

CSN bases its calculations on each week of study corresponding to 1.5 credits and according to this, you are considered as a full time student by CSN even if you study for a shorter period and for less than 30 credits.

The value of courses within Europe is based firstly on ECTS credits, and secondly on the local credit system.

5. Will my grade be transfered?

As from autumn semester of 2011, only the credits and not the course grade will be transfered.