The ECTS consolidated and supplemented the various local norms within Europe since Europe is made up of different countries with different credit systems. For exchange students, universities may use ECTS as a primary or secondary grading system. These credits are awarded based on a student's overall workload (study hours) and learning outcomes.
The workload is the amount of time that a typical student would require to complete the learning objectives. Students' ability to explain what they have learned during a course is the result of their learning. Implementing the ECTS has many advantages for European universities and students, including the following: