The master's thesis is completed in the 2nd year of the master's programme.
A 4th year of a bachelor's degree is equivalent to the 1st year of a master's degree at EPL and is therefore not eligible.
Due to the organizational constraints of short term international mobilities, it is possible to do your master thesis during your stay at the Louvain school of engineering (EPL) ONLY IF your master thesis is organized within the framework of a pre-existing research collaboration between your home institution and EPL.
Please check whether such opportunity exists by asking to professors of your home institution whether they are in contact with a professor at EPL.
Apart from this exception, we no longer accept to supervise the Master's thesis of non-degree incoming mobility students.
Please note that EPL will not accept applications from incoming students to work on a Bachelor thesis during a mobility programme.
How to apply?
If you meet the requirement mentioned above and wish to come as an exchange student to work on your Master thesis, then:
First of all, you must be nominated by your home university and submit your complete application file before the deadline (see our webpage How and when to apply).
When you submit your application file, you must already mention the name of the academic supervisor linked to the Louvain School of Engineering (EPL) willing to supervise your project here, already in contact with your home institution supervisor.
Secondly, we ask you as a prerequisite to send a "final thesis project" letter to the International Office (epl-exchange@uclouvain.be) explaining:
1- the project you would like to work on (a maximum of 2 pages, with description of the subject, purpose and methodology)
2- the name of a professor in your home university liable to promote your project
3- the name of the academic supervisor linked to the Louvain School of Engineering (EPL) willing to supervise your project here.
This letter must be signed by the professor in your home university liable to promote your project.
If you gather these 3 prerequisites altogether, your registration at EPL will in principle be accepted under no further condition.
If you have no defined project, no academic contact neither at your home university, nor at EPL, likely to promote your thesis project, please note that as a general rule we will then not be able to accept your application.
As a general rule, Master thesis subjects must be related to the usual research subjects proposed at Ecole polytechnique de Louvain. Please note that a professor belonging to another UCL faculty may never be supervisor for the final thesis of an EPL incoming exchange student.
When:
It is important to note that EPL students start searching for their final work project during Spring of their 4th year, to start working on their final thesis during the 5th year. It is therefore highly recommended to follow the same timing when applying for a final thesis, as each Faculty member can only supervise a limited number of students.
More specifically, students applying as exchange students at EPL in the frame of their master thesis, must ensure that the final thesis project is validated both by their local coordinator and their future EPL coordinator and sent to epl-exchange@uclouvain.be by:
- 15 June at the latest, if registering for the next first semester (Fall Semester) or full academic year
- 30 November at the latest, if registering for the second semester (Spring Semester) of same academic year.
How to complete your Learning Agreement?
You have 3 options:
- If you come to work on your master thesis and you defend your master thesis at your home university, the number of ECTS must reflect this workload. The master thesis is usually worth between 15 and 18 ECTS (course code: LEPL2990 " Master thesis work "). In this case, you must add courses to your Learning Agreement, preferably thesis-related courses, in order to reach the minimum requirement of 20 ECTS per semester.
NB: ECTS linked to the thesis defense will therefore not be credited at EPL but at the home university. Consequently, if necessary, the home university will have to complete the number of ECTS linked to the thesis defense carried out at the home university. - If you work on and defend your Master thesis at EPL, as a regular EPL student, then the number of credits can be the same, i.e. 25 ECTS maximum (course code according to the master: xxxx2990).
Please note that in this case you are not allowed to defend your master thesis at your home university. - If there are no EPL courses in your Learning Agreement and that you must defend your thesis at your home university, then you should complete the kind of “Learning Agreement - Student Mobility for Traineeships” document.
In this case, you will not defend your thesis at the EPL but at your home university and your master thesis will be credited by your home university and not by UCLouvain.
Your file will be processed by the secretary of the institute to which your EPL supervisor belongs and not by the EPL International Office.