What is an academic credit and how is it calculated (SCT, ECTS and more)

What an academic credit is

An academic credit is a unit that measures the academic workload a course requires. It does not only count class hours: it measures the total time you are expected to invest, including independent study, assignments and exam preparation.

Every study plan defines how many credits each course carries and how many you need in total to graduate. That is the number that appears next to each course name in your plan.

A credit is not the same as a class hour

A 4-credit course does not equal 4 hours of class: it usually includes in-class hours plus independent work hours. That is why two courses with the same class hours can carry different credits if one demands more work outside the classroom.

When planning your semester, do not count only class hours: credits estimate the real total load you will carry.

How it is calculated in the most common systems

• SCT (Chile): 1 credit equals roughly 25 to 30 hours of total work. A full academic year is 60 SCT and a typical semester is close to 30.
• ECTS (Europe): an academic year is 60 ECTS and each credit equals roughly 25 to 30 hours of total work. A standard semester is 30 ECTS.
• Colombia: each credit corresponds to 48 hours of academic work during the semester, combining supervised and independent work.
• United States: the credit hour is based on weekly class hours plus out-of-class work; a full-time load is usually 12 to 18 credits per semester.
• Peru and other countries: they often define their own equivalences between lecture hours, practice hours and credits, so check your university's regulations.

How to find out how many credits your degree has

Open your study plan and add up the credits of every mandatory and elective course you need to graduate. The total usually appears in the regulations or on your program's website as well.

If your plan is digitized in Mi Malla, the total and your passed credits are calculated automatically: you can see your credit progress without adding anything by hand.

Credits, grades and weighted average

Credits also weight your average: a grade in a 6-credit course counts twice as much as one in a 3-credit course. That is why the credit-weighted average reflects your performance better than a simple average.

If you want to go deeper, we have a full guide on how to calculate your university average and another on Mi Malla's calculator that does it for you.

How many credits to take per semester

The general rule is not to drift from the load defined by your study plan: in 60-credit annual systems, a typical semester is 30. Many universities set minimums and maximums per term; respecting them prevents overload and losing regular student status.

If you work, are retaking courses or are coming off a hard semester, lower the load on purpose instead of attempting the maximum and failing.

Credits and degree progress

Your completion percentage is simply passed credits divided by total credits. It is a much more useful number than 'I am in my fifth semester', because it reflects reality even if you moved ahead or fell behind.

In Mi Malla that percentage updates as you mark each course as passed, and it shows how many credits you still need to finish.