ECTS Calculator for Indian Students (Credits to ECTS)

How Indian credits become ECTS

ECTS, the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System, measures workload. Sixty ECTS credits equal one full year of study, so a bachelor’s degree in Europe is 180 or 240 ECTS and a master’s usually 90 or 120. TUM puts one ECTS credit at about 30 hours of work, which makes a full year around 1,800 hours.

There is no official table that turns Indian credits into ECTS. Indian universities use different credit systems, so the total credits for the same four year degree differ from one university to another. German universities do not use a fixed ratio. They work it out from the length of your degree.

TU Dresden publishes the formula for its computer science master’s: the factor is 60 times the number of years in your degree, divided by the total credits in the degree. Each module’s ECTS is then its credits multiplied by that factor. TUM’s School of Life Sciences builds its conversion factor from the same inputs: the 60 ECTS of a year, your degree’s total credits and its length in years.

Your degree	Factor	A 4 credit module becomes	Whole degree
3 years, 133 credits (TU Dresden’s example)	1.35	5.41 ECTS	180 ECTS
4 years, 160 credits	1.50	6.00 ECTS	240 ECTS
4 years, 200 credits	1.20	4.80 ECTS	240 ECTS

Two things follow. Your whole degree always comes out at 60 ECTS a year, however many credits it has, so the total is never the problem for a four year degree. And any shortcut that multiplies every Indian credit by a fixed number, such as 1.5 or 2, will be wrong for most transcripts, sometimes by a lot.

What admissions actually check

The total rarely decides admission. The subject areas do. TU Dresden’s computer science master’s, for example, asks for 90 ECTS of relevant content, including at least 20 ECTS in mathematical fundamentals and at least 10 ECTS in theoretical computer science, algorithms and data structures. TUM’s curricular analysis uses 140 ECTS from your undergraduate degree and counts your 118 best graded ECTS towards the application grade.

So the useful work is module by module: list each course on your transcript, convert its credits with your factor, and group them under the areas the programme names. Use the subject area rows in the calculator for the areas that look tight.

Faz's rule

Fill the subject area table honestly, because the admissions office will redo it from your transcript.

The temptation is to count a module wherever it helps. Admissions committees read the module names and, where they are unsure, the syllabus. A module called Engineering Mathematics III counts for mathematics. One called Professional Ethics does not, whatever it touched on. If an area comes up short, say so and pick programmes that fit your degree, rather than stretching modules to cover it.

The three year degree question: 180 or 210 ECTS

A three year BSc, BCom or BCA converts to 180 ECTS. Many university master’s programmes accept that. Universities of applied sciences are stricter, because their own bachelor’s degrees usually run seven semesters and 210 ECTS.

Hochschule Kempten, for example, admits 180 ECTS graduates to several master’s programmes on condition that they make up 30 ECTS, through a practical semester, 20 weeks of work experience or extra modules depending on the programme. Munich University of Applied Sciences asks for 210 ECTS with a minimum of 180, and 180 ECTS graduates earn the missing 30 during the master’s; its Industrial Engineering master’s admits only 210 ECTS graduates. Check the programme’s examination regulations before you apply, because that is where the rule is written down.

For the rest of the German application, see our guides to the APS certificate, uni-assist and anabin, and convert your marks with the German grade calculator.

Questions people ask

How do I convert Indian credits to ECTS?

Work out the factor first: 60 times the years of your degree, divided by the degree’s total credits. Then multiply each module’s credits by that factor. A four year degree of 160 credits gives a factor of 1.5, so a 4 credit module is 6 ECTS.

How many ECTS is a 4 year BTech?

240 ECTS under the duration method that German universities use, whatever the number of credits on your transcript. A three year bachelor’s is 180 ECTS.

Can I do a master’s in Germany with a 3 year bachelor’s degree?

Often, yes. Many universities accept 180 ECTS. Universities of applied sciences often require 210 ECTS and admit 180 ECTS graduates only on condition that they earn the missing 30 ECTS.

How many hours is one ECTS credit?

Usually 25 to 30 hours of total work, including lectures, self study and exams. TUM uses 30 hours, so a 60 ECTS year is about 1,800 hours.

Why does a university’s ECTS figure differ from this calculator?

Each university sets its own method and rounding, and some judge each module on its content rather than its credits. The calculator uses the published duration method as an estimate; the programme’s own assessment is the one that counts.

Where these rules come from

• European Commission, European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System
• TU Dresden, M.Sc. Computer Science admission and credit conversion
• TUM School of Life Sciences, curricular analysis
• TUM School of Computation, Information and Technology, calculation of credits and grades
• Hochschule Kempten, master’s entry requirements
• Munich University of Applied Sciences, information on master’s applications

Checked in October 2026. Requirements are set programme by programme; the programme’s examination regulations are the final word.