Access Requirements

1° Students must hold a university degree or a higher education degree. Failing that, students must provide proof of significant personal and/or professional experience related to the performing arts (consult Validation of learning from experience).

2° Candidates who do not have a higher education diploma from the French Community of Belgium (or from a country where French is the only official language) must provide proof of sufficient mastery of the French language at level C1 of the Common European Framework of Reference.
The official language level certificate must be issued by an organization recognized as a full member by ALTE (see https://alte.org/Our-Full-Members).
Examples of tests recognized by the jury for French: DALF or TCF.
All skills must have been assessed and passed (written and oral comprehension, written and oral production).
In the absence of an official attestation issued by an organization recognized as a full member by ALTE (see https://alte.org/Our-Full-Members), a certificate from the University justifying teaching in French may be accepted.The jury reserves the right to request an official certificate issued by a recognized organization if it deems this necessary.

3° Have a minimum of 30 credits in philosophy, literature, arts, humanities and social sciences. The 30 credits of the #prog:title:min-lcucr100i# are eligible to meet these requirements.

And/or report on practical experience in the performing arts acquired prior to entering the master's programme. Theatre courses, internships and workshops taken in academies, schools or universitys are non-exhaustive examples of such experience.

In the absence of sufficient training in one or more of these subjects, supplementary classes will be integrated into the Master's programme (from 15 credits to a maximum of 60 credits). This preparatory module is established by the jury (small panel) on the basis of the student's educational background.

4° Students wishing to pursue a master's degree with a teaching focus must have a degree of the French Community of Belgium; failing this, they will have to pass a French language proficiency examination to demonstrate that their command of written and spoken French is equivalent to Level C1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (for further information, visit https://uclouvain.be/en/study/inscriptions/french-language-master-teaching.html).

> It is possible, under certain conditions, to use one's personal and professional experience to enter a university course without having the required qualifications. However, validation of prior experience does not automatically apply to all courses. Find out more about Validation of priori experience.

Candidates who do not fulfil the abovementioned admission requirements, but who have duly attested significant experience relevant to the field of study in question, may apply for admission to the programme on the basis of an individualised admission procedure.

For more information on the procedure for admission by validation of learning from experience (VAE) in the Faculty of Philosophy, Arts and Letters: https://uclouvain.be/fr/facultes/fial/valorisation-des-acquis-de-l-experience-vae.html.

Admission on the basis of validation of learning from experience (VAE) may, in the case of training or experience judged to be valuable but insufficient by the select committee, involve the addition of supplementary classes (from 15 credits to a maximum of 60 credits) integrated into the Master's programme.

Opening to adults taking up their university training

The Centre d'études théâtrales from UCLouvain (CET) promotes the presence of adults alongside young students. To enable them to follow their studies while working, most courses are grouped together on certain days of the week.

Students who can prove they have a professional occupation can request (before 15th October) a reduction (allègement) in their annual programme and, therefore, be authorised to spread the credits of their Master's programme over three or four academic years.

Access based on application : access may be granted either directly or on the condition of completing additional courses of a maximum of 60 ECTS credits, or refused.

Admissibility criteria 
A candidate's application will be deemed admissible if it meets all of the following criteria:

• Candidate's diploma issued by an institution recognized by WHED (see https://www.whed.net/home.php)
• Previous course of study including at least 3 years of higher education (equivalent to 180 European credits), leading to an undergraduate degree;
• For holders of a degree from outside Belgium:

1. an overall average of at least 60% (12/20) for the entire course of study completed at the home institution and giving access to this program;
2. official attestation of proficiency in language(s) at the required level (see specific entry requirements), to be attached to the application file. The official attestation must be issued by an organization recognized as a full member by ALTE (see https://alte.org/Our-Full-Members).

If a document is missing from the online application, it must be justified (see UCLouvain Enrolment Department's frequently asked questions, in particular "What do I do if my online application asks for a document I don't yet have?")

Applications deemed admissible are forwarded to the Faculty by Enrolment Services. Applications that do not meet these criteria are automatically rejected. 

Eligibility criteria 
Applications submitted to the Faculty by UCLouvain's Enrolment Department are examined by the program's jury in accordance with the specific conditions of access detailed above.
The jury decides on the admissibility of candidates on the basis of the information contained in their application file, the quality of the training they have undergone and the results they have obtained.
When examining the application, the jury will pay particular attention to the following points: 

• Consistency between the candidate's previous academic career and the prerequisites for the targeted program. The match between the candidate's academic background and the UCLouvain bachelor's degree giving direct access to the master's program need not be perfect, but the skills acquired (see specific access conditions) must be close; Example: for an application for admission to a master's program in modern languages and literature, the candidate's previous training includes courses in languages and literature in both modern languages.
• Grades obtained in the program's major disciplines (see specific entry requirements);
• Arguments put forward by the applicant in his or her cover letter (training project in line with the program in question, relevance of arguments, coherence between the applicant's application and the program in question, etc.) Example: the language combination requested by the applicant is organized in the program in question.
• Original covering letter. An original covering letter is expected, explaining the personal training project. Any plagiarism or use of artificial intelligence in writing the letter to the jury will result in the application being disqualified. 
• Experience gained. If the access diploma was obtained more than 5 years ago, it is imperative that the experience acquired since leaving school is directly related to the field of study of the programme applied for.

Changes to the conditions of access to the Faculty of Philosophy, Arts and Letters for 2025-2026 will be available in this document .