Learning credit
As a starting student in higher education in Flanders, you receive 140 credits from the government. You will use this virtually filled backpack throughout your entire study career. Each course unit (OPO) of the study program of your Bachelor or Master has a value, expressed in credits. For each course you register for within an academic year, you will receive as many credits from your backpack as the course is worth. If you pass the exam for that OPO that academic year, the credits will return to your backpack. If you do not pass that course within that academic year, your credits will be lost. Your learning credit balance therefore reflects your study success.
How does it work?
If you choose a full-time program with 60 credits, you will receive 60 credits when you register at the beginning of the academic year. So you use 60 credits of your total learning credit balance of 140 and have 80 left. If you pass all the courses taken that academic year, the 60 credits used will be added up again. If you are registered with a diploma contract, you will receive double the first 60 credits you earn back during your study career. This is called the bonus. So if you have successfully completed exams for the 60 credits taken up in that academic year, your learning credit balance at the end of that academic year is: 80 + 60 + 60 = 200 credits. However, the credits for which you did not take a successful exam within the academic year will be lost. This also applies to the learning credit used for OPOs for which you had a deliberated or tolerated deficit. As a result, the learning credit balance with which you start the next academic year will be lower. Frequent failures can therefore also have an influence on the further course of your study career.
Negative learning credit
Students who have a negative learning credit balance after a number of years of registration in higher education, due to insufficient study progress, will not be able to (re)register at LUCA.
Annual study efficiency
The annual study efficiency (JSE) expresses as a percentage the ratio between the number of credits you have passed and the number of credits you have taken within a specific course that academic year.
You can consult your JSE via the KU Loket application, more specifically in your 'Study progress file'.
Because your JSE gives an indication of your study progress, it is also used as an instrument for a number of study progress rules:
• the milestone system
• refusal to re-register based on a low JSE, LUCA OER Art. 32;
• refusal to re-register based on repeated low JSE, LUCA OER Art. 33;
• specific refusals for students in the milestone system, LUCA OER Art. 32bis and LUCA OER Art. 33bis;
• a JSE of 50% only applies as permission to tolerate or not tolerate a course unit for non-milestone students, LUCA OER Art. 89 §2
Deliberation - Tolerance
In a bachelor's, bridging or preparatory program, you can, under certain conditions, use a tolerance for course units (OPOs) for which you obtained a slight deficit (8/20 or 9/20). This way you do not have to take the exam again for this/these course unit(s). Using tolerance is therefore a way to promote your study progress.
You can consult your tolerance file via the KU Loket application in 'My study progress file'.
If an examination committee decides for you that you have passed an OPO for which you did not obtain credit, we call this a deliberation. Deliberation takes place at LUCA from academic year 23-24 for all starting students in a BA course, who are in any case obliged to participate in the milestone system.
Conditions
You enrolled in a BA program before 23-24
You started a BA program in or after 23-24
You started in a bridging program on or after 23-24
Procedure
Your tolerance file is a tab in your 'study progress file' in KU Loket. You will find which tolerances you have previously used and whether you meet the conditions for using additional tolerances.
If you cannot yet graduate, for example because you have not yet completed all the course units of your study program or because you obtained too many or too high unsatisfactory grades in your graduation year, you will be given exactly fifteen calendar days after the examination results have been announced in June and September. to apply tolerances and to organize your tolerance file. In September, it is best to arrange your tolerance file as quickly as possible, as you will only receive the email with the invitation to re-register afterwards.
Please note: once you have definitively submitted your choices for tolerances, they can no longer be revoked. You cannot go back on your decision once you have initiated a tolerance. So think about it carefully and let your remaining tolerance credit and considerations about future possible stumbling blocks play a role in your decision. Moreover, it is better to take the re-examinations than to make a hasty decision in June. If you use a tolerance in June, you will not be allowed to take the re-examination.
Questions?
If you have any questions, please contact your study counselor or contact the education administration. More information about how the learning account works can be found on this web page of the Flemish government.