International Course Work and Grading System Differences

            International students will discover that course work in classes overseas is just as different from their new abroad grading system.  Students who will be studying abroad in Europe, the Middle East, Australia, and South America will see that work is less classroom intensive and more focused on independent study.  However, international students will find their coursework in Asia, primarily in China and Japan, to be more labor intensive in and out of the classroom in comparison to the United States.  This generalization is not taking away from the amount of effort that will need to be put forth by international students as all their classes are deemed extremely difficult.  Equally as dissimilar overseas is the grading system as students will discover their grades of A’s, B’s, and C’s have been replaced by High Distinction, Distinction, and Credit.  This credit conversion is mainly associated with European schools and is broken down into High Distinction (A), Distinction (A), Credit (B), Pass (C), Pass Conceded (D), and Fail (F) with a traditional United States grading scale in parenthesis.  On the other hand, some international universities utilize the same 100-0% grading scale as the United States.  In both systems if a student were to get 3 out of 3 in course credits then they would have earned the grade of an A; the only difference is that in this grading system the schools have a different credit base.  This grading system is called the ECTS system and in this system the grading scale is the same but credits are divided in half when transferred to the US.  For example, if a student takes a 6 credit hour course abroad and earns an A in the course then when the grade transfers back to their US school it will still be considered an A grade, but only 3 credits will be earned.  This grading system is typically found in schools throughout Europe and Asia.  There is not a vast amount of information available on the web related to grading differences between domestic, and international schools so study abroad students are highly encouraged to talk to their domestic and international advisors about overseas grading prior to departure.

           

Works Cited: Office of International Studies (2011), “Study Abroad Pre-departure Guide”, Illinois State University, 19