The ECTS Tables and Grading Scale

The ECTS tables and grading scale are tools designed to facilitate the transfer of academic results (expressed in terms of grades) between different national assessment systems. They are adopted by the universities in the countries belonging to the European Higher Education Area and they allow the conversion of the grades from one country into grades used in another country, following common European rules.

The University of Bologna in compliance with the ECTS Users' guide 2015 [.pdf] and the guidelines of the CHEER project annually prepares the ECTS tables that contain the statistical distribution of grades achieved by homogeneous groups of students in a given period.

In the ECTS tables, for each grade, the percentage of students who actually achieved it is reported. They then show how a national scale of votes is used within an institution, on the basis of their own voting policies and they also allow, through the comparison of the cumulated percentages, the conversion of grades between different national systems.

Starting from A.Y. 2018-19 at the University of Bologna the homogeneous groups of students are created by merging the degree programmes in the same ISCED field of study (1 digit). Within each field of study, students are subdivided by study cycle (first, second and single cycle).

The tables are updated every year at the end of July and contain the data of the exams and final examinations of the previous three ended academic years (1 November - 31 October).

Consult the ECTS grading tables

Consult the list of the degree programmes in each ISCED field of study [.xlsx 55 KB].

Attention: in the same tables the converted grades into the ECTS scale are also reported.

The ECTS scale is built according to the following rule:

  • grade A corresponds to the grades obtained by the best 10% of students;
  • grade B corresponds to the grades obtained by the next 25%;
  • grade C corresponds to the grades obtained by the next 30%;
  • grade D corresponds to the grades obtained by the next 25%;
  • grade E corresponds to the grades obtained by the final 10%.

The ECTS scale is used on a residual basis for the conversion of the grades obtained at institutions that have not yet adopted the ECTS tables, but only the scale.

Please note that the ECTS scale allows the transfer of votes only among universities of countries belonging to the European Higher Education Area that have adopted the same ECTS scale. It also should not be confused with other grading scales expressed in letters of the alphabet.

Outside the European Higher Education Area several voting systems exist and often coexist, but no general mechanisms have been defined at international level for the conversion of votes similar to the ECTS.