PROGRAM OF UNDERGRADUATE COURSES
The Undergraduate Degree in Education Sciences in Early Childhood requires four years of studies. The Program of studies adheres to the specifications of the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS). The academic year begins on September 1 of each year and ends on 31 August of the following year. Each academic year is divided in two semesters (fall and spring). Each semester consists of at least 13 weeks of classes and usually three weeks of examinations
Each course in the Program is associated with instruction and credit units. Instruction units correspond to teaching hours per week during a semester. According to the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS), credit units denote students’ workload required to successfully attend the corresponding course and achieve the corresponding learning outcomes. Students’ workload derives from attending lectures, tutorials and laboratory practices, studying, doing projects, taking examinations, etc. Each credit unit corresponds to 25-30 hours of workload during a semester. According to ECTS specifications, the total workload per semester corresponds to 30 credit units. The total workload during the four years of studies at the Department corresponds to 240 credit units. During the four years of studies, students may accumulate more than 240 credit units in case they successfully attend optional courses offered in the program.
The Program includes obligatory courses, elective courses, optional courses and obligatory sections of the Practicum. To obtain the diploma, each student is required to successfully attend all obligatory courses and obligatory sections of the Practicum. Furthermore, each student needs to choose and successfully attend certain of the elective courses offered in the Program. Optional courses are not required to obtain the diploma but corresponding grades and credit units are included in the record of students that will successfully attend them and are also included in the Diploma Supplement they will receive on graduation.
Students may choose to prepare a diploma dissertation during the fourth year of their studies or take three additional elective courses instead. Two foreign languages are offered in the Program (i.e., English and French) and students choose one of them during their studies.
On graduation from the Department, students receive their Diploma along with their Diploma Supplement. According to ECTS specifications, the Diploma Supplement is an explanatory document describing the overall context of the graduate’s studies. Among others, it includes the list of courses attended by the graduate. It is issued in Greek and English.
In order to organize the Program of undergraduate courses the following are kept:
• The Analytical Program of Courses in which courses are organized in scientific groups according to their curriculum.
• The Indicative Program of Courses which includes the distribution of courses in the eight semesters of study, the required hours of teaching per week and the corresponding credit units.
• The Program of Offered Courses for the current academic year, which includes the actual distribution of courses in eight semesters of study, the required hours of teaching for each course per week and the corresponding credit units.