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External activities

You must get an approval of all courses not offered by the Graduate School of Health via PhD Course Management to be able to include the ECTS from the external course in your PhD Plan. This includes courses from other AU departments, faculties and units, even those offered by other Graduate Schools at AU via PhD Course Management.

Please note, you cannot get external courses approved if they are taken during leave from the PhD study or completed after enrolment end date.   

Case processing can take up to 4 weeks.

How to apply for approval of external courses

Approval of course after completion

If you would like to include an external course in your PhD Planner, you must use the form "Apply for approval" to submit the following after you have completed the course:

  1. An application form (upload as PDF) - signed by your main supervisor to confirm that the course is relevant to your PhD project. Download application form (NB. Please download and use the updated application form for future approvals).
  2. Documentation (upload as PDF) - showing correspondence to a course at PhD level (if the applicant does not meet this requirement, the graduate school administration will reject the application)
  3. A detailed course programme  (upload as PDF)  - with precise hour intervals for each course subject (lectures, exam, obligatory home assignments etc.)
  4. A detailed course description  (upload as PDF) - defining the target group, the course activities etc.
  5. A course diploma (upload as PDF) - or other confirmation of completion issued by the responsible institution/person.

 

Approval of course prior to course attendance (pre-approval)

You are able to apply for a pre-approval of an external course in the following cases:

  • If there is doubt about the level or relevance of the course
  • If you are going to attend a course during your longer stay abroad (duration of minimum one month) and wish to apply for financial support.

If you would like to get an external course pre-approved, you must use the form "Apply for pre-approval" to submit the following prior to course attendance:

  1. An application form signed by your main supervisor to confirm that the course is relevant to your PhD project. Download application form.
  2. A detailed course description
  3. A draft course programme

Once the graduate school has pre-approved your external course, you are guaranteed ECTS accreditation for the given course.

Re-submit your application for approval after you have completed the external course in order to get the ECTS accreditation (see above). Use the form  "Apply for approval"

Which courses can be accredited?

The graduate school will normally be able to approve courses included in the following categories:

Category

Additional condition for approval

Courses at PhD level offered by other health science faculties

Courses at PhD level offered by other faculties

Only if the course has direct relevance to the PhD project

PhD courses completed before enrolment in the PhD programme

A maximum of 15 ECTS for courses taken within the last two years before enrolment, and only if the course has direct relevance to the PhD project and as a minimum is at the same level as our own PhD courses (learn about credit transfer)

PhD courses taken during a Research Year or in connection with enrolment in the PhD programme

A maximum of 15 ECTS for PhD courses completed during the research year and within the last 5 years before enrolment in the PhD programme can be transferred and approved as part of your PhD degree (learn about credit transfer)

University courses at a Master's degree level

Only up to a max of 10 ECTS credits under the following conditions:

If the course has been concluded with an exam

If the course has not been included in the PhD student's Master's Degree, and

If the main supervisor can confirm that the Master's degree course is relevant to the PhD project

Online based PhD courses

Only under the following conditions:

If the course has been pre-approved* by the graduate school, and

If the student has successfully completed the concluding exam/assignment

* Except courses from Coursera, as the total platform has already been approved. Simply apply for approval once the course is completed. The entire course including all course elements must be completed to obtain the approval.
Preparation hours are not to be included in the ECTS calculation.

Network activities and annual meetings including activities similar to courses

Only under the following conditions:

If activities similar to course activity are included (e.g. workshops, group work, educational sessions etc.)

If the main supervisor can confirm that the activity is relevant to the PhD project

Conferences and congresses

Only under the following conditions (as of 1 May 2018):

Find the conditions at the site "ECTS for other external activities". 

You do not need to apply for an approval; simply update your Planner and upload documentation for participation.

Allocation of ECTS credits

The Graduate School of Health allocates ECTS credits for external courses based on teaching hours, time spent on home assignments, exam etc. Therefore, we ask you to submit a detailed course programme when applying for approval of an external course.

The allocated ECTS value might differ from the ECTS value stated in the external course certificate, since the external institution might use a different calculation model.

At the Graduate School of Health 1 ECTS equals 10 teaching hours including preparation (preparation factor 1,5) for  external courses.

NB: Preparation hours are not included on Coursera courses. (Example: 25 working hours equals 1 ECTS)

Acknowledgement of ECTS accreditation

There are a few exceptions to the above procedure:

  • We accept ECTS credits for PhD courses taken at health science faculties in Copenhagen (UCPH) and Odense (SDU) without any further assessment.
  • We also accept ECTS credits for Master’s Degree courses offered by Aarhus University without further assessment.

The approval procedure however remains the same.