The following terms and expressions, wherever used in these Guidelines, shall have the meanings assigned to them below:

1. Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research: Refers to the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Iraq.
2. Student: Refers to any student who is enrolled in an academic program at a university.
3. Credit (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System – ECTS): Refers to the system used for the accumulation and transfer of academic credits based on student workload, learning activities, and the learning outcomes achieved through the educational process.
4. Learning Outcomes: The totality of the knowledge, understanding, skills, and competencies that a student is expected to acquire upon the successful completion of a learning process.
5. Assessment: A set of various methods and tools, including written examinations, oral examinations, projects, practical and professional skills evaluations, presentations (seminars), and other assessment techniques, used to evaluate students' academic progress and to ensure that the intended learning outcomes of a specific module have been achieved.
6. Attempt: Refers to a repeated attempt by a student to take the final semester examination of a module.
7. Module: Refers to an individual course within an academic program that is assigned a specific course code and a designated number of ECTS credits.
8. Module Withdrawal: Refers to a student's withdrawal from a registered module.
9. Module Replacement: Refers to the replacement of one registered module with another during the course registration period.
10. Module Drop: Refers to the removal of a student from the final examination of a module (i.e., dropping the module after registration in accordance with the applicable regulations).
11. Module Retake: Refers to a module that a student is required to repeat after failing to successfully complete it.
12. Examination Retake (Exam Retake): Refers to the re-sitting of the examination for a particular module.
13. Prerequisite Module(s): Refers to module(s) that must be successfully completed before a student is permitted to enroll in or undertake another related module within the academic program.
14. Module Requirements: Refers to the requirements that a student must fulfill in order to be eligible to sit for the final examination of a module.
15. Credits Earned: Refers to the total number of academic credits successfully accumulated by a student.
16. Examination Committee: Refers to the committee appointed by the faculty/college to organize, supervise, and administer matters related to examinations.
17. Final Examination: Refers to the examination conducted at the end of a semester for the purpose of assessing a student's achievement in a module.
18. Regular Duration: Refers to the number of semesters specified in the academic curriculum within which a student is expected to complete the program of study.
19. Regular Semester: Refers to the Fall (Autumn) and Spring semesters, excluding the Summer Semester.
20. Trimester: Refers to an academic system in which each semester carries 20 ECTS credits, dividing the academic year into three academic terms instead of the traditional fall and Spring semesters.
21. Short Semester: Refers to the academic term conducted during the summer period (Summer Semester).
22. Student Workload: Refers to the total amount of time that a student is expected to devote to learning activities, including both teaching and independent learning.
23. Termination: Refers to the procedures by which a student is dismissed or discontinued from the academic program.
24. Program: Refers to a structured set of educational components designed and organized on the basis of the intended learning outcomes.
25. Learning Pathway: Refers to the academic route or sequence of study selected by a student to achieve the intended learning outcomes of an academic program.