Required Work Load & Credits*
Universidad Torcuato Di Tella´s degree structure and contact hours
Undergraduate programs
At UTDT, there are two types of undergraduate degrees: Licenciaturas, which are 4 years in length, and Architecture and Law, which are professional degrees and are completed in 5 years. All these programs are full-time.
The academic year runs from March through December and is divided into two 19-week long semesters (including final exam weeks). Summer holidays take place from late December to early March and winter holidays are held during the last two weeks of July.
European students who are in the first year of their Master´s program are encouraged to take 4th year courses of the Licenciaturas and 5th year courses in Law and Architecture.
Most upper-undergraduate courses meet two days per week for 2 hours each time and some, especially first-year courses, meet 3 times per week, for two hours each time. Most courses meet twice per week and add up to 68 contact hours during the semester. Those meeting 3 times per week add up to 102 contact hours per semester.
It is estimated that students need to do at least 2 hours of homework/study per contact hour per week. Therefore, when calculating ECTS credits, students should add contact hours + study hours and divide that number by the number of study hours that the home university considers to make up 1 ECTS (eg. 68 contact hours + 136 study hours = 204 hours. 204/27 hours needed for 1 ECTS = 7.5 ECTS).
Thus:- courses with 68 contact hours = 7.5 ECTS credits
- courses with 102 contact hours = 11.3 ECTS credits
A full-time course load for exchange students is 3-4 courses per semester. Exceptionally, students may take up to 5 courses.
Graduate programs
All Master´s degrees are 2 years long and part-time. They are organized in 8 or 9-week modules although some offer intensive courses taught during shorter periods. Courses have anywhere beteen 12 and 33 contact hours are offered on weekdays from 7 to 10 pm. In some programs, students come to University every fortnight and take courses all Friday and half day on Saturday (i.e. Executive MBA). It is estimated that for each hour of class, students need to do at least 4 hours of work on their own. Therefore, when calculating ECTS credits, students should add contact hours + study hours and divide that number by the number of study hours that the home university considers to make up 1 ECTS (eg. 12 contact hours + 48 study hours = 60 hours. 60/27 hours needed for 1 ECTS = 2.2 ECTS).
Thus:
- courses with 12 contact hours = 2.2 ECTS credits
- courses with 15 contact hours = 2.8 ECTS credits
- courses with 24 contact hours = 4.4 ECTS credits
- courses with 30 contact hours = 5.6 ECTS credits
- courses with 33 contact hours = 6.1 ECTS credits