Understanding the LMD – The LMD at UL

The beginning of the process of implementing the LMD system at the University of Lomé began in 2004 with the creation of the LMD Commission, by decision No. 011/UL/CP/2004 of November 5, 2004. This commission composed of 12 members, representatives of each training establishment, had the mission of piloting the reform process that was going to be put in place.

In 2008, Decree 2008-066/PR of July 21, 2008 established the LMD in the higher education system in Togo. The UL switches to the LMD system from September 2009.

The LMD system at UL is characterized by training offers organized in multi-disciplinary fields comprising diversified courses, with an architecture based on three grades: License (3 years), Master (5 years), Doctorate (8 years).

The provisions are such that each establishment can offer several courses in the same field or offer several courses in different fields.

The field covers several disciplines or courses, notably professional, made up of a set of Teaching Units (UE) distributed on a semester basis, accompanied by capitalizable credits defined on the basis of “the total workload required from the the student to validate a diploma. It is subdivided into Grade, Mention, and Specialty. While the mention of the diploma specifies the particularity of the education followed by the learner in a given field of training, the specialty specifies his knowledge and skills acquired with a view to his professional integration or the continuation of his studies. The University of Lomé has selected the 8 areas of training offered by REESAO:

1. Letters, Languages ​​and Arts (LLA);
2. Human and Social Sciences (SHS);
3. Sciences of Education and Training (SEF);
4. Science and Technology (ST);
5. Health Sciences (SS);
6. Agronomic Sciences (SA);
7. Economic and Management Sciences (SEG);
8. Legal, Political and Administrative Sciences (SJPA).

A teaching unit is a set of learning activities pursuing common educational objectives. It constitutes an autonomous subdivision within a route. It is a coherent whole involving one or more disciplinary fields. It can be made up of two or three Constituent Elements (CE) provided ideally by at least 2 teachers.

There are different types of UE:

• The fundamental teaching units: these are the basic lessons that the student must validate at the start of their course, to the extent that they constitute prerequisites for the rest of the training. The contents of these teaching units must be defined in the basic discipline(s) of the course.
• Complementary teaching units: these are units intended to complement the fundamental teaching units or to offer an opening to the student.
• In-depth courses: these are courses aimed at the start of specialization, these courses can then offer several choices to the student.
• Specialty courses: these are courses allowing the acquisition of professional skills in the form of face-to-face teaching (courses, tutorials and practical work) but also company visits, internships, project writing, etc.
• Transversal teaching units: these are courses intended to provide learning facilitation tools to share with students in other fields of training.
• Free EU: These are EUs which offer complementary activities to the initial discipline, in areas as varied as sport, languages, culture or student engagement (associative life, social solidarity, help for people living with disabilities). They offer an opportunity to discover and acquire new know-how.

A credit is a measure that allows a value to be assigned to each UE. This value corresponds to the workload required to achieve EU objectives. One credit is equal to 20 hours of workload for the student per semester, divided into 12 hours of face-to-face teaching (courses, tutorials, practical work, internship) and 8 hours of personal work.

The License corresponds to 180 credits, the Master to 120 credits and the Doctorate to 180 credits.

This is the organization of training in semesters. The semester has a defined number of weeks: at the University of Lomé, a semester corresponds to 16 weeks divided into 12 weeks of teaching and 4 weeks of evaluation (exams and results).

At the University of Lomé, the License is validated in a minimum of six (6) semesters, the Master in four (4) semesters, and the Doctorate in six (6) semesters.

An EU is validated at least 10/20. In the case of a composite UE (EC), the validation score is the arithmetic average of the EC scores. However, a score less than or equal to 5 out of 20 in one of the UE ECs does not allow compensation. The EC (whose grade is less than or equal to 5 out of 20) must be retaken by the student. The notes of the other ECs are kept for him.

In LMD, training offers are presented in temporal semesters, but progression does not take place from one semester to another: students do not generally move from one semester to another.

The LMD learner must be able to capitalize, at their own pace, the teaching units of the course they are following, subject to having fulfilled the prerequisite conditions.

Per semester, the student can only register for a maximum of 30 credits. Any excess must be subject to authorization from the CIP (Pedagogical Registration Commission) of the establishment and the DAAS.

A student cannot obtain:

• the License in 6 semesters only if he has obtained the 180 credits;
• the Master in 4 semesters only if he has obtained the 120 credits;
• the Doctorate in 6 semesters only if he has obtained 180 credits.

These are compulsory credits constituting a defined course.