Sheffield-Hallam has a masters history degree. Certificate Level (60 credits). Diploma Level (120 credits) MA Degree (180 credits) Is there a rule of thumb formula equaiting British credits with their US equivalents? Color (colour) me confused
1 credit is nominally 10 hours of work. So the 180 credit Master's would require a nominal 1,800 hours of work. This appears to be the standard minimum for a Master's in the U.K. -- I have an MSc from Birkbeck that was a nominal 1,800 hours. I would guess that the work required is about the same as a 36 semester-credit U.S. Master's.
In most schols I've attended 10 hours of class time = one quarter unit, and 15 hours of class time = one semester unit.
The 1,800 hours is the total time spent on the program -- including study, research, writing, etc. -- not just the class time. And I wrote "nominal" time because I certainly didn't invest 1,800 actual hours for my MSc. Maybe 400 actual hours (over 2 years).
I'm figuring that an American LL.M. takes about 24 semester hours minimum so each of the four exams I will write represents about 6 semester hours, or two semesters' work in a single subject. I don't think it can be exact, though, because the English separate research masters degrees and taught masters degrees.
Mapping the World of Education If you go to the National Science Foundations (NSF) website and perform a search for, "Mapping The World of Education" you will be directed to the US Department of Education's database. The database is the most respected determination of foreign credit evaluations I know of. http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/mapping/start.htm