Credits, not hours
Study is measured in ECTS credits, which count the workload a student actually carries — lectures, laboratory, private study and assessment together — rather than the hours a teacher stands in a room.
Bologna Process
Iraq is aligning its higher education with the European Higher Education Area. For a student that changes how a degree is measured and described; for a department it changes what has to be written down and shown.
Training course · Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research — Iraq
Open the course
The Bologna Process in Iraqi higher education
Five sessions covering the problems the reform answers, the process itself, the ECTS credit system, how it is applied, and quality assurance under it.
The five sessions
The five sessions
- 1 Problems and challenges of the Iraqi system What the reform is answering: an unstable calendar, curricula not tied to outcomes, and a CGPA that weights early years lightly.
- 2 Introduction to the Bologna Process What it is, why 48 countries adopted it, and what it means for students, universities and employers.
- 3 The ECTS credit system Credits, the grading scale, CGPA under ECTS, and how student workload is actually calculated.
- 4 How the process is applied Student-centred learning, programme and module outcomes, curriculum design, the programme catalogue and module descriptions.
- 5 Quality assurance under Bologna The ten ESG internal standards, and the academic performance indicator that measures a teacher against them.
The numbers it settles
25 hours of student workload per ECTS credit, as adopted in Iraq
30 ECTS credits in one semester
240 ECTS credits in a four-year bachelor degree
65 / 20 / 15 weighting of the academic performance indicator: student feedback, head of department, teaching portfolio
What it actually changes
What it actually changes
Not the subjects taught. The way learning is measured, described and carried between institutions.
Outcomes, not syllabi
A programme states what a graduate can do, and every module outcome maps to one of those statements. An outcome nothing assesses is not an outcome.
Modules described in full
Every module carries a published description: outcomes, workload, teaching method and how it is assessed. It is written before the semester, not after it.
A degree that travels
The Diploma Supplement describes the award in a form another country can read, so a graduate is not asked to explain their own transcript abroad.
Where the university stands
Where the university stands
Departments are moving across in stages, so three study systems run at once. The curriculum page shows exactly who is where.
14
Bologna
9
Iraqi semester
8
Annual
Where the work is kept
Where the work is kept
Each layer of the Bologna record lives in its own platform.
Curriculum matrix
Which department runs which study system, this academic year.
Module descriptions
The description of every module, with credits and workload.
Programme catalogue
Programme specifications and their learning outcomes.
Quality management system
The evidence behind the claims made in the catalogues.
Archive of guides and reports
Archive of guides and reports
Issued by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and by the European Higher Education Area.
Questions we are asked
Questions we are asked
Does Bologna change what my department teaches?
No. It changes how the teaching is measured and described. The subject matter is decided by the department and the ministry, as before.
My department still runs the Iraqi system. Is that a problem?
No. Departments move across in stages and several run two systems in parallel while a cohort finishes. What matters is that the curriculum in force is the approved one.
Who decides how many credits a module carries?
The department proposes it from the workload the module actually demands; the department reviews the arithmetic before it reaches the catalogue.
Where do I start if I am writing a curriculum?
From the programme outcomes, then the modules that deliver them, then the assessment that measures them. Writing the module list first is the usual mistake.