Diploma Supplement: Describes the education system of the country and how the program followed by the student and the educational institution places within this system.
Academic year:
Courses: Based on qualification frame of BP, any course or subject will be named as a module. For example, the computer application course will be named as computer application module.
ECTS:
ECTS makes teaching and learning more transparent and facilitates the recognition of studies. The system is used across Europe for credit transfer (student mobility) and credit accumulation (learning paths towards a degree). It also informs curriculum design and quality assurance. Institutions which apply ECTS publish their course catalogs on the web, including detailed descriptions of study programs, units of learning, university regulations and student services. Course descriptions contain learning outcomes (what students are expected to know, understand and be able to do) and workload (the time students typically need to achieve the learning outcomes), expressed in terms of credits. At University of Zakho, student workload is around 1,500 hours for an academic year, and one credit corresponds to 25 hours of work. Credit transfer and accumulation are helped by the use of the ECTS key documents (course catalog, learning agreement, and transcript of records) as well as the Diploma Supplement.
Bologna Process cycle structure:
Qualifications Framework of BP is composed of three cycles (Bachelor – Master – Doctorate structure). The first cycle is bachelor degree (240 ECTS), the second cycle is Master degree (120 ECTS), and the third cycle is Doctoral degree (~= 180 ECTS). The University of Zakho is adopting the first and the second cycle. The implementation of the first cycle is starting from the academic year 2017-2018. The second cycle has been implemented since 2016-2017 as the MHE-KRG adopted this system for Master degree in all Universities in Kurdistan region which have postgraduate programs.
University modules are taken in the foundation year only (first stage). Below is the major topics that need to be covered in each university module:
Computer Application Module:
The topics that are supposed to be covered in this module are:
Kurdology / Genocide Modules:
Kurdology module will be taught in the first semester; while Genocide module will be taken in the second semester. The major topics that are covered by these modules are as follows:
Academic Debate Module:
The covered topics are:
Social Activities:
This is volunteer work that each student needs to have. This can be gained through acting one or more of the following activities:
At University of Zakho the ECTS for any module can be calculated based on hours that can be performed by students as a Student WorkLoad (SWL). This is categorized by three main categories: Contact hours and study time(1), Assignments (2), and Assessment & Exam Preparation(3) (Figure 2).
Contact hours and study time
This category includes several sections that can be considered for calculation of ECTS. They are:
Each section has it is own required time that is going to be multiplied by a weight in order to calculate the total hours that students need to spend within this category. An Example is shown in Figure 3.
Assignments
This category also includes some other section as (Figure 4):
Assessment & Exam Preparation
This has three main sections (Figure 5). There are:
Below is an example of calculating ECTS for a Linear Algebra module (Figure 5).
Figure 7: Module code style
Based on BP, ECTS can be collected through achieving and accomplishing tasks that are distributed over semesters by counting hour. The total number of hours of each module is distributed over the following tasks and activities:
A special form (module workload distribution hours) is prepared to record and count the hours for each student and another form is prepared for assessment (Students assessment form). These forms will be filled for each semester. Appendix A shows the sample of the “module workload distribution hours”. While, Appendix B shows “Students assessment form”.
The numeric value of the grade earned in each module is multiplied by the number of credits for that module. This result is called the grade points (GP) earned in that module. The sum of the grade points earned in that semester is divided by the total credits attempted during that semester. In these calculations, only modules with numeric value grades are considered. The resultant quotient is the Semester GPA, as shown in the following equation.
Cumulative Grade Point Average (GPA) refers to the overall GPA, which includes dividing the number of grade points earned in all modules attempted by the total credit hours in all attempted modules.
Example:
|
Course Codes |
ECTS |
Grade |
Numeric Grade Points |
Value of Grade |
|
CAL02210 |
6 |
A |
3.8 |
22.8 |
|
FMT02211 |
5 |
B- |
3 |
15 |
|
COA02310 |
4 |
C+ |
2.8 |
11.2 |
|
ENL01110 |
9 |
C |
2.6 |
23.4 |
|
KUR01210 |
3 |
B+ |
3.4 |
10.2 |
|
ACD00010 |
3 |
A- |
3.6 |
10.8 |
|
Total |
30 |
|
19.2 |
93.4 |
Total credits attempted = 6+6+4+8+3 = 27
Total grade points earned = 6×3.8+5×3+4×2+9×0.0+3×2.6+ 3×2.6= 93.4
Grade Point Average = 93.4/30 = 3.12
Quality assurance in a specific context can be described as a number of practices, policies and steps that are prepared to achieve, develop and maintain quality in higher education. The process of QA and its development is considered as one of the main strategies in the University of Zakho. The implementation of this process aims to reassure the citizens and the society of the quality of educational level at the University of Zakho as well as the value of the certificate granted by the University. Accordingly, the instructions of this process has been designed and regulated in a manner that is appropriate with the Bologna system principles. Therefore, for evaluating the quality of BP implementation at the University of Zakho; the following indicators are used:
University of Zakho consists of three Faculties (Science, Humanities, and Education) and three Colleges (Engineering, Administration and Economic, and basic Education). Accordingly, each department of the faculties/colleges has set their modules, and module tables of each department within faculties/colleges with weekly hours and ECTS are shown in Appendix C.
The required forms and tables for Bologna Process at University of Zakho is shown here in Appendix A, Appendix B and Appendix C.