FAQs

•      - For questions about courses, minors, exams, class timetables, deliberations, obtaining a diploma and its appendices, etc., please contact your faculty.
•      - For questions about your enrolment or re-enrolment application, tuition fees or obtaining your enrolment certificates and cards, please contact the Enrolment Office.

You simply need to enrol for the 120-credit professional focus master’s course. Your administrative manager will enrol you as being at the end of the master’s course (“en fin de cycle”) and encode from among your total UCLouvain credits the relevant transfer credits, i.e. “credits recognised as having been acquired at UCLouvain by obtaining the same master's degree in another subject”.

Please note, however, that if students re-enrol in for a different focus of a master's course from which they have graduated, they are no longer entitled to a French-speaking Community of Belgium student grant.

The bachelor's programme is divided into three annual blocks. You are free to apply to enrol in the first bachelor's block or in the second or third block. In other words:

•      - 11 BA enrolment corresponds to enrolment in the first year of the bachelor's course (first annual block);
•      - 1 BA enrolment corresponds to enrolment in the second or third annual block.

This is a diploma issued by a Belgian educational institution (in the French, Flemish or German-speaking Community).

It is not, therefore, a non-Belgian diploma recognised as equivalent by the French Community of Belgium (equivalency decision). An equivalency decision does not constitute a Belgian qualification!

To apply for a bachelor’s course, you have to submit an equivalency application to the French Community of Belgium, unless you hold:

- a secondary school diploma issued by the French, Flemish or German-speaking Community of Belgium;

•      - a Schola Europa European Baccalaureate ; 
•      - an IBO .

Applicants should note that there is a deadline for submitting applications to the Service des équivalences (Equivalency Service).

On average, an academic year is made up of 60 credits, so for registered credits, enter 60, then:

•      - if you passed this year, indicate that you earned 60 credits, or,
•      - if you did not pass this year, indicate that you earned 0 credits.

- If you do not yet have your secondary school, university, école supérieur or other diploma, enclose a certificate of enrolment in the institution during the current year of study or a certificate of successful completion if you do not yet have your diploma.

For any secondary school diploma from a country outside the European Union, the admission application must contain your diploma equivalency issued by the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (French Community of Belgium). For information on obtaining an equivalency, please refer to the relevant service. ATTENTION: Applications lacking a secondary school diploma equivalency will be denied.

- If you do not yet have a transcript for the current academic year, enclose the last transcript of marks you received.

- If you lack proof of passing one or more tests (DELF, DALF, TCF, GMAT, TageMage, TOEFL, IELTS, ARES entrance exam or medicine/dentistry entrance exam, etc.), provide proof of registration for the test or attach a document in your own handwriting stating on your honour the reason why you do not have to sit this test.

In this case, there is no point in sending the document by email. No document will be accepted by email if it has not been requested by the Enrolment Office beforehand.

If the size of the PDF file is too large, it is essential to reduce it using, for example, a PDF reduction tool such as this one.

Once your application has been confirmed, it can no longer be changed. Please contact the Enrolment Office if you wish to add any further information to your application.

The final confirmation of your online application is sufficient.

FOR ADMISSION APPLICATIONS ONLY (eligible non-Belgian diploma): Once your application has been confirmed, it will be assessed and, if necessary, submitted to the faculty examination board, which will assess whether your application meets admission requirements for the chosen programme. Depending on the faculty’s decision, an authorisation or refusal to enrol will then be emailed to you by the Enrolment Office. Please follow the instructions in the document you receive carefully. Please note that the analysis may take several weeks depending on the complexity of your application.

FOR ENROLMENT APPLICATIONS ONLY (eligible Belgian diploma): Once your application has been confirmed between 1 November and 31 May for the following academic year, the Enrolment Office will analyse it from June onwards and inform you of the results as soon as possible.

Higher education is mainly funded by the French Community of Belgium. The ordinary tuition fees charged to students cover only part of the cost of a year's study. 

In order to enrol at university and receive funding from the French Community of Belgium, students must meet its funding requirements. Some of these requirements relate to the student's nationality (nationality/Belgian student status requirements), while others relate directly to the student's academic record (academic requirements). Please consult the requirements.

If you do not meet the requirements, you are not fundable. However, in application of Article 96 § 1 of the decree of 7 November 2013 defining the higher education landscape and the academic organisation of studies, the UCLouvain authorities may decide to participate exceptionally in the funding of certain students who meet particular academic criteria. Your admission to the university therefore requires an exemption. Article 3, mentioned further above in these FAQs, is not related to your ability to fund your studies.

There are a number of options for becoming eligible again:

•       - Applying to the faculty for an exemption: if this application is accepted, you will be re-enrolled as a non-fundable student. To become fundable again, you will have to make up the time you have lost on the benchmarks, based on this exemption year.
•       - Interrupting your studies for at least five years (starting this year): once this period has elapsed (with no enrolment at university or haute école), your eligibility for funding will be reset to zero.
•       - Changing of courses and obtaining a diploma: changing to a different course allows you to remain fundable (if this is not done at a later stage in your course, see the fundability requirements). Obtaining a diploma will reset your counters to zero, provided that one or more classes in the first course can be used as part of the second course.

The decree does not limit the number. However, you can only change during the first four academic years:

•      - after one year in a course: you must have earned/validated the 60 credits in block 1 by the end of your third enrolment as a bachelor’s student;
•      - after two years on a course: you must have earned/validated 60 block 1 credits by the end of your fourth enrolment as a bachelor’s student;
•      - students can even combine changes of course at the beginning of the year with those during the year:
  •           - 22-23 : A=>B
  •           - 23-24 : C=>D
  •           - 24-25 : E=>F
  •           - 25-26 : G=>H ==> must acquire 60 credits from block 1 of H at the end of 25-26
•      - In the fifth year of a bachelor's degree, it is more difficult to change courses: you will already have to have acquired or upgraded the 60 block 1 credits of the new course. And even if the credits you have already acquired were recognised by the new course exam board (for this to happen, the block 1 programmes would have to be identical), you would soon be faced with the 120-credit benchmark (to be achieved in four-plus-one for a total of five years) and the 180-credit benchmark (to be achieved in five-plus-one for a total of six years). The only way to get around the ensuing benchmarks (120 credits in four years and 180 in five years) is to acquire all the credits in your annual programme.

Any course change that entails a change in the main title of the diploma, not including changes of focus (“finalités”) (M1, MD, MS and MA) and other specialist qualifications (/IU, /ET, etc.).

Change of course examples:

•      - haute école in law -> university in law;
•      - bachelor’s course in law -> bachelor’s course in history;
•      - 120-credit master’s course -> 60-credit master’s course.

Examples that are not a change of course:

•      - master’s course in history with professional focus (“finalité spécialisée”) A -> master’s course in history with professional focus (“finalité spécialisée”) B;
•      - bachelor’s course in law at UCLouvain -> bachelor’s course in law at ULB.

The Parcours accès spécifique santé (PASS) and Licence accès santé (LAS) are preparatory courses for studies in the health field in France. At the end of these courses, students sit a competitive exam. If they pass this exam, they can go on to study in a health field. If they are unsuccessful, they have to switch to an ordinary degree. Belgian universities do not organise PASS/LAS. However, these two courses can be likened to certain courses organised in the French Community of Belgium. In concrete terms, the PASS and LAS can be considered in line with the courses for which they confer eligibility, i.e.:

•       - medicine;
•       - dentistry;
•       - pharmacy;
•      - physiotherapy.

/ ! \ The transition from PASS/LAS to one of these courses does not constitute a change of course.

However, the PASS and LAS are not the same as a bachelor's course in biomedical sciences or a bachelor's course in motor skills science, general orientation.
/ ! \ The transition from a PASS/LAS to one of these courses constitutes a change of course.

Credits acquired as part of the PASS and/or LAS can only be considered in the analysis of fundability if they have been validated (i.e. an exemption has been granted) by the original programme's exam board. In addition, a student who has sat and failed the competitive exam twice in France will no longer be fundable for equivalent programmes in Belgium.

In addition, a student who has sat and failed the competitive exam twice in France will no longer be fundable for equivalent programmes in Belgium.

You can find information on this page.

In principle, student grants are not permitted for those who have already obtained a diploma of equal or higher level,* whether or not they had received a grant for that purpose. In addition, grants are not permitted for enrolment in doctoral studies (source: Article 3 of the decree governing student grants).

*Master’s and specialised master’s courses are at the same level (level 7). The teaching diploma (agrégation) is also a level-7 course.

The bank guarantee deposit is managed by UCLouvain's International Relations Department (ADRI). For more information, please read their dedicated page.

You can also contact them at: international@uclouvain.be.

If you wish to change any of your personal details, you must notify the Enrolment Office by email with a photocopy of both sides of your identity card showing the change.

Please note: a change of surname and/or first name may have an impact on:

•      - The student’s UCLouvain email address and UCLouvain username. Once the Enrolment Office has made the change to the student’s file, the student may need to contact the Service Center to adapt these elements.
•      - Access card and student card. Where applicable, once the Enrolment Office has made the change in their file, students will ask the GSPP to renew their access card and the Enrolment Office to renew their student card. The cost of this will be borne by the student.

The certificate for public transport can be found in the virtual office in My studies > My certificates.

Transcripts should be requested from the faculty.

You must follow the procedure indicated in this Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles document.

Please read the government circular on the procedure to follow. For further information, please consult the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles website.

To obtain certified copies of a document:

•      - if you are abroad, contact the Belgian consulate or embassy in the country concerned; or
•      - if you are in Belgium, contact your local authority or a sworn official (notary, etc.).

NB: The Enrolment Office does not certify the conformity of a document to an original.

The provisions of the law of 30 July 2018 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data prohibit us from responding to this type of request without the explicit agreement of the person concerned. For all requests, it is imperative that you send us the following information:

•      - surname, name;
•      - date and place of birth;
•      - title of the course(s) concerned and the academic year(s) concerned;
•      - copy of an identity document;
•      - written authorisation signed (by hand) by the person concerned.

However, on the basis of a provided document, we can, if appropriate, certify its authenticity.

The request must be submitted using a personalised, non-generic address.

Please send it to: authentification@uclouvain.be

      Director’s Secretariat
      Enrolment Office
      Université catholique de Louvain
      Place de l'Université, 1 bte L0.01.10
     1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
     Belgium
     Tél: 00 32 (0)10 47 38 84

A delay of three weeks may be necessary if further research is required.

Note: Before making any request, please check the origin of the documents concerned. Do not confuse the Université catholique de Louvain with our Dutch-speaking counterpart the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.

For Louvain-la-Neuve, Saint-Gilles, Mons, and Tournai: the request to replace the photograph must be submitted to the Louvain-la-Neuve Access Centre at cartesacceslln@uclouvain.be and costs €20.

For Woluwe: the request must be submitted to the Woluwe Access Centre at cartesacceslew@uclouvain.be and costs €20.