FAQ ENVI2MC

The ENVI2MC Master's degree aims to provide interdisciplinary training in the fields of the environment and sustainable development. It is intended for holders of a Master's degree, whatever their initial field of study. Given the interdisciplinary nature of the programme, part of it consists of a list of basic courses enabling students to acquire the necessary prerequisites. These subject-specific reinforcement courses may, of course, be waived depending on the student's previous degree (subject to recognition of equivalence with courses already taken).

The ENVI2MC Master's degree is a specialised degree, requiring a minimum of 240 credits of prior training. It is designed as a complementary interdisciplinary course for students who already have a solid basic university education. The ENVI2MC Master's enables them to broaden their basic discipline by offering them an interdisciplinary perspective on environmental and sustainable development issues. Students therefore remain specialists in their core discipline, which they enhance by acquiring the ability to integrate the many facets of environmental and sustainable development issues. Building interdisciplinary skills in the environment without a solid foundation of disciplinary skills is hardly credible. Furthermore, a 2-year Master's degree cannot reasonably train ‘specialists’ who are competent in all environmental and sustainable development disciplines. Training as an ‘interdisciplinary generalist’ in the field of the environment is of no professional interest if it is not based on a particular area of expertise, which it is not possible to acquire in the ENVI2MC Master's programme and which must therefore be acquired in a first Master's programme.

The ENVI2MC Master's programme depends to a large extent on the timetable of courses given by different faculties to students following the programmes of these faculties, who are joined by ENVI2MC Master's students. In addition, the ENVI2MC programme is a full-time full-course programme. Under these conditions, a staggered timetable is not an option. However, it is possible to reduce the length of the programme over several years (but without changing the course timetable). Some students have already taken the Master's programme at the same time as their professional activity, spreading their training over several years. Experience shows that these students have made arrangements with their employers to reduce and adapt their working hours.

Graduates work in a variety of positions relating to the management and integration of environmental and sustainable development data and constraints, in design and consultancy firms, public administrations (regional, federal, international), non-governmental organisations (local and overseas) and private companies. An alumni association exists and can serve as your point of contact with the professional world.

The first step is to check that you meet the Master's admission requirements. One of the entry requirements is to have at least the equivalent of a Distinction (14/20 or 70%) in your previous degree. Significant professional experience may compensate for the absence of a Distinction.

If you do not hold a Belgian degree, please note that the deadline for submitting applications to UCLouvain is 31 March preceding the start of the academic year (see in particular the admission procedure for regular international students).

If the information and forms available on the Internet are not sufficient or are difficult to access, please contact our university's enrolment service.

Once you have checked the above conditions, you will need a registration authorisation issued by the ENVI2MC Master's coordinator before you can register with the Registrar's Office. To enable the coordinator to decide on your eligibility, you must send him or her, preferably by e-mail to coordenvi@climate.be with ‘ENVI2MC’ in the subject line: your detailed CV, your results and grades year by year (transcript of records), a letter of motivation and a one-page summary of your dissertation (thesis or project).

PLEASE NOTE: THIS APPLICATION DOES NOT IN ANY WAY WAIVE THE ADMINISTRATIVE FORMALITIES TO BE COMPLETED AT THE UCLouvain REGISTRATION OFFICE. It merely provides an informal opinion on your eligibility for the Master's programme (academic aspects only), and gives the coordinator the information needed to issue you with authorisation to register in good time.

Please refer to the information on registration fees.

The maximum number of credits for a Master 120 is 135. Some students are tempted to overextend their list of electives. However, they must be able to manage their course load in such a way that it is achievable for them...
The minimum course load, taking into account possible exemptions for prerequisite courses, is 105 credits. Taking into account the Professional Internship (30 credits) and the Personal Final Project (= internship report of 15 credits), the course load is limited to 60-90 credits. An analysis of the programmes actually put together by the students, taking into account the prerequisites and exemptions, shows that the students have a real programme of an average of 66 course credits (minimum 61 credits) completed in one year, plus the 3-month work placement completed after this year of courses.

The programme details which courses are compulsory and which are optional. In particular, for certain activities, you must choose a course from the list provided. The pre-requisite courses are all compulsory, but exemptions may be granted to students who have already taken courses deemed equivalent.

All the ‘pre-requisite’ activities (‘Skills upgrading activities’) must be taken in order to obtain the Master's degree in Environmental Science and Management and Sustainable Development. Although these pre-requisites are not essential for taking other specific courses, they are part of the general culture targeted by the ENVI2MC programme.  If activities deemed equivalent have already been taken during the student's previous studies, they no longer need to be taken as part of the ENVI2MC Master's programme and may be waived.

To obtain an exemption, the student must compare the content of the course (see the specifications accessible by following the link to the course code in the study programme) with the courses already taken. If the student considers that the request for exemption is justified on the basis of a good match between content and target skills, he/she prepares a sub-folder in his/her personal Moodle folder, with a detailed description of the course already taken (content, syllabus, specifications, etc.) to document and justify the match with the course identified in the ENVI2MC programme.  He/she informs the Master ENVI2MC coordinator (climate-coordenvi@listes.uclouvain.be) when the application is ready.  If the coordinator is not in a position to make the decision himself, he will seek the opinion of the professor in charge of the course for which exemption is sought.  The equivalence of the course content is assessed by the teacher concerned.  The ENVI2MC Master's coordinator is responsible for granting exemption, where appropriate.

Students wishing to graduate from the ENVI2MC Master's program must have a minimum basic training in the following fields: ecology, biology, economics, chemistry, biochemistry, physics, statistics, data acquisition and processing. Consequently, if such notions in one or more of these fields are lacking in the student's initial training, it is necessary for him/her to follow the corresponding disciplinary reinforcement activities. All discipline-based reinforcement activities are therefore “compulsory”, but may be waived on the basis of subjects already studied as part of the student's previous degrees.

To facilitate the constitution of each student's individual academic program, a spreadsheet is made available to students. Simply complete the spreadsheet, complying with all the conditions indicated, and submit it to the Master's coordinator (coordenvi@climate.be) for 

The ENVI2MC Master's program consists of courses given at Louvain-la-Neuve. Students may choose to take elective courses at other locations. The first letter of the course code indicates its location: L= Louvain-la-Neuve, W= Woluwé (=Brussels), M= Mons.

Sessions take place in the standard university format, i.e. in January and June for the first session, and in August for the second session. Some courses are subject to continuous assessment during the term.

The term “practical work” refers to any type of session in which the material covered in the course is applied in a practical mode (including laboratory and research work). This practical mode varies from one course to another.

The ENVI Master's program is largely made up of elective courses, so timetables can vary greatly from one student to another. However, given the minimum credit load, these courses usually take up the whole week. You can get an idea of a weekly timetable by consulting the course timetables. Please note, however, that these timetables only include compulsory courses, so it is necessary to complete the timetable with the elective courses you have chosen.

The internship usually begins in September following the course year. If necessary, it can also begin earlier (in July, for example) or later (in March, for example) (depending on the trainee and the host institution). The report is generally submitted and defended in the session following the end of the internship (in January for those who started full-time in September, in June for those who started later or have been doing their internship part-time since September). The search for an internship location is carried out by the student, who may be guided by teachers from whom he/she will seek advice. There is no list of addresses, but students can consult internship offers on Moodle and look up internship reports from previous years to find contacts of interest. Students can ask the internship coordinator (envistage@climate.be) for advice on host institutions for the work they wish to carry out during their internship.

The internship contract between the university, the host institution and the intern does not provide for remuneration. Belgian law prohibits remuneration for internships. However, compensation for expenses is possible and can be negotiated with the host institution.