Swedish higher education credits explained: hp, full time and how a term works
Credits are the currency of higher education. They decide whether you count as a full time student, whether you receive student finance, and whether you can graduate. Yet most students never get the system explained and simply guess their way through the first term. Here are the fundamentals.
The core numbers
One academic year of full time study equals 60 credits (högskolepoäng, hp). A term is therefore 30 credits, and most courses are 7.5 or 15 credits, which gives roughly four courses per term.
| Scope | Credits | Approximate time |
|---|---|---|
| Academic year, full time | 60 hp | approx. 40 weeks |
| Term, full time | 30 hp | approx. 20 weeks |
| Standard course | 7.5 hp | approx. 5 weeks full time |
| One credit | 1 hp | approx. 26 to 27 hours of work |
That last row, which follows from how the Swedish Council for Higher Education describes full time study, is the most important and the least known. One credit corresponds to roughly 26 to 27 hours of study work, everything included: lectures, seminars, reading, assignments and exam preparation. A 7.5 credit course is therefore around 200 hours of work, not 200 hours of lectures.
Why full time really is a full time job
Doing the arithmetic, full time study lands at about 40 hours a week. Your timetable might show 8 to 12 hours of teaching, which leads many first year students to assume the rest is free time. It is not. The rest is independent work, and that is where the credits are actually earned. How to distribute those hours is covered in how many hours a day should you study.
Study pace: 100, 75 or 50 percent
Study pace describes how fast you study relative to full time. 100 percent means 30 credits per term, 50 percent means 15. Pace affects three things: how long your degree takes, how much student finance you receive, and how many of your funded weeks you consume.
If you take several courses in parallel it is the combined pace that counts. Two courses at 50 percent is full time, provided they run in the same period. If they clash in the timetable it becomes more than full time, a classic trap when planning your own course combinations.
hp, old points and ECTS
Since 2007 the unit has been called högskolepoäng. Older programmes used poäng, where one academic year was 40 points, so one old point equals 1.5 credits. A syllabus listing 20 old points is therefore 30 credits today.
Internationally the unit is ECTS credits, and the system is identical: 60 ECTS per academic year, so 1 hp equals 1 ECTS. That is what makes exchange studies transfer directly within the EU. Grading scales differ, however, see our article on GPA.
Credits and your degree
A degree requires a certain number of credits, distributed across the right levels and subjects. Roughly:
A higher education diploma is 120 credits, a bachelor's degree 180, a one year master's 60 credits on top of a bachelor's, and a two year master's 120. Professional degrees such as engineering, medicine and law have their own scope, often 270 to 330 credits.
Beyond the total there are depth requirements, meaning a share of the credits must be at a higher level within your main field, plus an independent project. That is why you cannot assemble a bachelor's degree from any 180 credits. If your thesis is coming up, see our guide to writing it.
Credits and student finance
CSN requires you to pass a share of the credits you were funded for, normally 62.5 percent during the first 40 weeks and 75 percent after that. Registered but unfinished credits count against you. Read more in our CSN guide.
Frequently asked questions
How many hours is 7.5 credits?
Around 200 hours of total study work, which is about five weeks of full time study. If the course runs at half pace, the same work is stretched over ten weeks.
What happens if I do not pass all credits in a term?
You can normally resit at the next examination date, and the credits register once you pass. The problems arise with CSN and with prerequisites for the next course, so check both before postponing an exam.
Is 30 credits per term always reasonable?
It is the norm, but if you work a lot on the side or are going through a rough period, half pace can be a better choice than failing at full pace. Remember that pace affects your student finance, and that funded weeks are limited.
Do credits from different institutions add up?
Yes, credits from Swedish institutions are recorded in Ladok and can be included in a degree, but the institution issuing your degree decides which courses may be counted.