ECTS Grading Scale

The ECTS grading scale is a standardized grading system developed by the European Commission as part of the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System, created to give a common measure of higher education grades across Europe and make it easier to transfer students and their grades between European institutions. It was designed as an optional translation tool rather than a replacement for national grading systems, letting institutions report a grade in both their own local system and its ECTS equivalent. Its original form, used from 2003 to 2008, sorted passing students into five percentile-based bands, from A for the top 10 percent down to E for the bottom 10 percent of passing students, with failing grades split into FX for a near pass and F for a substantial deficiency. That rigid percentile approach proved impractical, so in 2009 the system was simplified to use statistical distribution tables showing the actual percentage of students at each grade for a given institution, giving a more flexible basis for comparison. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/