Resources
The credit system, explained
One credit equals 25 hours of work, of which 10 are taught. This single rule governs the length of a programme, the size of every block and the value of what you earn. Understand it and you can read any curriculum in thirty seconds.
What a credit actually measures
A credit measures work, and it measures all of it. Of the 25 hours it stands for, 10 happen with a teacher, a tutor or a group: classes, workshops, marking, peer review. The other 15 are yours — reading, exercises, producing the deliverable, preparing for assessment. A 20-credit block therefore commits 500 hours of your calendar, 200 of them taught. That arithmetic, and nothing else, is why a 180-credit programme runs over three years.
- 25 total hours of work per credit, supervision included
- 10 taught hours per credit: classes, workshops, marking, review
- 15 hours of personal work per credit, which you schedule
- A block's credit count states its real weight in the programme
- A programme's total credits set the duration it advertises
The rule applied to a full programme
Here is the real outline of one catalogue programme. Each row carries its year, its taught volume and its credits: multiply the credits by ten and you land exactly on the hours. The rule holds on every row, in every programme, without exception.
| Teaching block | Year | Hours | Credits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Algorithms and programming | 1 | 280 h | 28 |
| Databases | 1 | 160 h | 16 |
| Systems and networks | 2 | 240 h | 24 |
| Web and mobile development | 2 | 280 h | 28 |
| Software engineering | 3 | 260 h | 26 |
| Deployment and operations | 3 | 180 h | 18 |
| Cross-curricular base | 1-3 | 240 h | 24 |
| Project and immersion | 2-3 | 160 h | 16 |
Three formats, three credit volumes
One Bac+3 level programme, one Bac+5 level programme and an eighteen-month entrepreneurial track. All three follow the same scale and therefore compare directly, which is exactly what the credit system exists for.
| Programme | Level | Duration | Credits and hours | Fees |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Computer Science programme — Bac+3 level | Bachelor's degree | 3 years | 180 credits · 1800 h | 5 400 000 GNF per year |
| Artificial Intelligence programme — Bac+5 level | Master's degree | 2 years | 120 credits · 1200 h | 7 800 000 GNF per year |
| Entrepreneurship | Bachelor's degree | 18 months | 60 credits · 600 h | 4 400 000 GNF per year |
What the credit count lets you do
Compare two offers in one calculation
Divide the advertised fees by the credits: you get the cost of one unit of work, comparable across programmes.
Plan your year
A 24-credit block asks for 600 hours. Spread over thirty weeks, that is twenty hours a week to set aside.
Place a block in the whole
A 28-credit block weighs more than an 8-credit one: the mark and the effort it demands follow that ratio.
Carry an achievement forward
Credits earned stay earned. They describe a validated volume of work, in a language every equivalence office reads.
Questions about credits
Is a credit worth the same everywhere?
The scale used here is the one in the official catalogue: 25 hours of work per credit, 10 of them taught. It is written once, applied to all 30 programmes and checked block by block. An equivalence office recalculates that ratio first, which is why it is published.
Is the 15 hours of personal work supported?
It is framed: every block states its expected outputs, its milestones and its submission dates. The tutor reviews your interim work, peer review gives you a second perspective, and the learning space keeps a record of your progress.
How many credits is a full year?
A full year is built around sixty credits, that is 1,500 hours of work with 600 taught. Bac+3 level programmes accumulate 180, Bac+5 level ones add 120: the catalogue shows those totals on every page.
Can I see the catalogue's total credits?
Yes, and it is computed from the programme pages themselves: 2415 credits spread over 181 teaching blocks, that is 24150 taught hours. Every figure published on this site comes from the same count.
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