FAQs

Complete the appropriate form on the Centre de services de l'UCLouvain (UCLouvain Service Centre) website and describe the problem in very precise terms, OR call 32 10 47 82 82 to explain the problem.

• 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.

To apply for accommodation, contact the Logistics and Student Accommodation Service (LOGE).

Consult the informational meetings for prospective students.

Yes, on the Louvain-la-Neuve, Brussels Woluwe and Mons campuses.

Please find it here, and previous years here.

Please find all current regulations here.

Welcome sessions for first-year bachelor’s students are organised at the start of each academic year. After you have completed your enrolment procedure, you can find information here.

See the course catalogue or contact the Course and Career Information Centre (CIO).

For all courses in medicine, contact the Brussels Woluwe campus Enrolment Office via the contact form.

Please see this page.

For information or to register for preparatory classes, please contact the faculty.

Please contact the Ecole polytechnique de Louvain (EPL, Louvain School of Engineering).

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.

Applications must be submitted online. Please note, however, that you must consider the enrolment calendar in order to know for which academic year you are applying.

You can only submit a maximum of two online applications. Please note that non-resident applicants are not authorised to submit more than one application for limited enrolment courses.

It is not possible to renew an enrolment authorisation. Therefore, please submit a new online application.

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).

Please see the information here.

If you are applying for a master's course in education or a teaching diploma, you must take the French language proficiency test. Information is available here.

As not all universities apply the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS), please attach your transcript.

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.

Please read the information available here, grouped by course and enrolment type. After you choose a course, click “Required documents”.

When you fill in your online application form for a CAPAES programme, you will be asked to download, complete and sign the CAPAES Fiche signalétique du candidat (“Applicant data sheet”) and the Attestation de function dans le cadre d’une inscription à la formation CAPAES (“Certificate of employment”) and attach them to your online application form

A certified copy is a copy of an original document that your local authority (or town hall), a notary or the university can certify as being in conformity with the original by affixing a stamp. Once a document has been certified as compliant, it remains so forever.

The Enrolment Office reserves the right to request certified copies of your diplomas and transcripts during the evaluation process or when you enrol.

All documents must be in the original language. However, if they are in a language other than French, Dutch, English, German, Italian, Spanish or Portuguese, they must be accompanied by a translation by a sworn translator. A sworn translator is an official translator.

Write a statement explaining why the document is not necessary, scan and attach it in place of the requested document.

- 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.

Your online application must reflect your current situation: if your status changes, please notify the Enrolment Office as soon as possible and provide the relevant supporting documents.

In order for your application to be assessed, all you have to do is confirm your application online (and, if applicable in your case, pay the application fee), which will enable the Enrolment Office to process it.

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.

You will receive an email confirmation from the Enrolment Office via your private email address. The confirmation email will ask you, among other things, to activate to your UCLouvain virtual office so that you can access helpful information for your studies. Subsequent emails will be sent to you via your UCLouvain student email address. Please note: students who are also staff members should consult their two UCLouvain email addresses (student and staff).

Other helpful information is also available, after logging in, on the Enrolment Office intranet pages.

Examples:

• When you will receive your access card?
• When you will receive your student card and enrolment certificate?
• When and how to pay the tuition fee?
• ...

• Credits remain before you can obtain the bachelor’s degree:
  If the bachelor's degree was not pursued at UCLouvain:
  • a copy of the last transcript of marks for the bachelor’s course showing the credits you registered for the credits you earned;
  • a copy of the enrolment certificate for the bachelor's course for the next academic year, indicating the credits still to be earned.

  If the master's degree was not pursued at UCLouvain:
  a copy of the last transcript of marks for the master's course, mentioning the credits you registered for and the credits you earned.

• You obtained the bachelor’s diploma:
  If the bachelor's degree was not pursued at UCLouvain:
  a copy of the certificate of successful completion which states that the diploma has been obtained and mentioning the credits for which you registered, earned credits, and the obtained degree.

  If the master’s degree was not pursued at UCLouvain:
  a copy of the last transcript of marks for the master's degree, mentioning the credits for which you registered, earned credits, and, if the diploma was obtained, a copy of the certificate of successful completion mentioning the obtained degree.

The French Community of Belgium (CfB) funds most of the cost of a year's study. The €835 tuition fee does not cover the full cost of a year's study. The other part of the cost is covered by the CfB, in the form of subsidies paid to the university. The CfB funds studies in accordance with its fundability rules. If these rules are not respected, students are declared non-fundable and the CfB will no longer fund their enrolment. Their enrolment application may then be refused by the university. It should be noted that when a student is no longer fundable, this decision applies to any course (bachelor/master), programme (subject to possible course change, see below), or CfB institution.

Fundability is only assessed on the basis of a complete application form. Students who are not fundable will be notified personally by the Enrolment Office. You will find helpful information on this page.

You should apply to the relevant faculty, which will tell you how to obtain the waiver. It is important to include a copy of the email sent by Enrolment Office with your waiver application.

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.

No, students who are unable to finance their studies will only be able to re-enrol if they obtain a waiver from the university, whether or not they have the financial capacity to cover the full cost of a year's study.

Any year of higher education completed at a higher education institution. This therefore also includes years of study at a Belgian Haute École or École supérieure des Arts. Enrolments outside the French Community of Belgium are also taken into account. The year 2019-20, known as the “Covid year”, does not count towards the number of years of enrolment.

It was possible under the former decree. It is no longer possible under the current decree. The determination is now made on the basis of courses. If a student wishes to return to university after having studied in a social promotion institution without obtaining a diploma, the results obtained there will be ignored. However, if the student goes all the way through his or her social promotion studies and obtains a diploma, his or her fundability will be reset to zero.

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;
• pre-master’s bachelor’s course in law at UCLouvain -> pre-master’s 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.

If you are continuing on the same course, it is the successful completion of 100% of the PAE that is decisive: in other words, if you validate all the credits of an PAE, you are automatically fundable to continue in the same course, whether or not you have reached the benchmarks. This rule should enable students who have already studied for a few years to complete the bachelor’s/master’s course they started.

On the other hand, in the event of a course change, the requirement of passing 100% of the PAE does not apply: you therefore come back to the benchmarks. In this case, it is almost impossible to change course after four years of bachelor’s studies, because of the 60-credit requirement (see here).

The rules are explained on our fundability webpage.

The online application is completely free. Please note that some applicants from outside the European Union will be asked to pay an application fee of €200 when their application is confirmed.

You must first submit your application online. Once your application has been confirmed, you will receive an email containing a summary of your application and the bank details.

The €200 application fee is payable for each application.

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.

There are three ways to access the online payment interface:

• The first way is in the virtual office, in the “My studies” widget (box): click on the “My online payment” link (image 1).
  
  Image 1

  
• The second way is to go to “My student file” and then the “My certificates” tab. An invoice will be available, with a link to the Mollie online payment service (see image 2).
  
  Images 2

  
• The third way is to download your enrolment notice and click on the link at the bottom of the document (image 3).
  
  Image 3

  

In all cases, you will be taken to the online payment interface and asked to click on “My payment records” (image 4).

Image 4

You will be taken to a list showing the various open balances. Click on “details” to display the payment history (image 5).

Image 5

You will see a screen similar to this one:

You can choose to pay the balance in full (blue button) or an amount of at least €100 (grey button).

The “Pay a deposit” option is available until 10 November. As a result, the button disappears for students who are denied the scholarship after this date or who enrol late.
From 11 November, only the “Pay the full amount” and “Pay a portion of the amount” buttons are available. In “Pay a portion of the amount”, you can pay in minimum instalments of €100 until 10 February.
From 11 February, only the “Pay the full amount” button remains.

Once you have chosen the payment option, you will be redirected to the Mollie system and will therefore leave the “UCLouvain” online payment area. Mollie is the external service provider managing online payments.

Depending on your profile, there are up to three payment methods:

1. Payment by transfer: you can send the information and bank details displayed by the payment system (account, SWIFT and reference to be used) to a person in the SEPA zone who can make the transfer. The person must:

• make a direct transfer from your account to the account displayed; do not make the transfer from a chequing or Visa account;
• only the reference should be given in the description; do not use any other information (e.g. surname, first name, etc.); it is not compulsory (but is recommend) to use the same format as the one displayed; by simply indicating the reference (without the “+” and “/”), the payment will be accepted;
• it is MANDATORY to pay the same amount as the one initially chosen; any difference will result in the payment being returned;
• on the document, a QR code can be scanned with a banking app to complete the payment request (Image 6).
  
  Image 6

  

2. Payment by Bancontact: for paying via a Belgian account only.

3. Payment by credit card: for all payments from a foreign account (including non-SEPA accounts)

Depending on your payment method, the time taken may vary. The average times for each type of payment are:

• five to seven days for Bancontact payments;
• seven to 10 days for payments by bank transfer;
• 10 to 15 days for credit card payments.

These times are given for information only and may therefore vary.

You need to log in to your student virtual office to access your online payment file. This also involves double authentication, which guarantees payment security. If you ask someone else to make the payment, you have two options:
- transmission of payment information via the “transfer” option (see question 1 above);
- payment via the virtual office in the presence of the third party.

No, each payment has its own information, so you need to make a new request for each new payment.
To draw a parallel, think of each payment as an online order: each payment is a product that you “buy” and if you want to make another purchase, you have to make a new “order”.
This system is imposed by our service provider.

One of the possible reasons for this is that the amount paid to the service provider (Mollie) does not correspond to the amount you initially chose. In this case, you need to start a new request, indicating your new choice. The amount you chose when requesting payment must correspond to the payment.

No, this is not phishing. Online payment processing is outsourced to a service provider (Mollie). This service provider has several accounts of different nationalities. As long as you have gone directly through your virtual office's online payment interface, or have used the information you received in the email sent by the said platform (see question 8), this is the official payment request.

The French version of the online payment service currently contains translation errors. We are working with our service provider to resolve these problems.
If you have followed the above procedures, we can confirm that this is not phishing.

The subject of the email is: Informations de paiement pour votre commande “12349876” (translation: “Payment information for your ‘12349876’ order”). The number is the student's matriculation, or NOMA, number and can be checked, for example, on the student card.
The standard body text generated by the service provider (Mollie) is as follows:

Bank details (communication and account number) may vary from one payment request to another. You should NEVER reuse information from a previous request (see question 4).

If you already have a payment request open in your online account, you will not be able to make a new one. You can either:

• make the open payment and, once it has been validated, make a new one;
• wait for the open payment to expire and then make a new one (please note that the expiry time varies from a few hours for Bancontact/Visa to several months for bank transfers);
• ONLY when a payment deadline is approaching: contact the Enrolment Office accounting service to ask for the current request to be cancelled so that a new one can be made. Make sure that no payment has been made on the basis of this request, otherwise it will be refused by Mollie.

You will find the information you need on the “First steps at UCLouvain” page.

Watch our explanatory video.

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 procedures for changing your enrolment and your course are explained on this page.

Either by sending us an email using the contact form or in person at the Enrolment Office (if the request is made by a third party, that person must have a copy of the student’s identity card and a power of attorney).

Either in person at the Enrolment Office (if the request is made by a third party, the latter must have a copy of the student’s identity card and a power of attorney) or by email to the Enrolment Office.

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

You can obtain a certificate for family allowances from the virtual office in My studies > My certificates, after you have paid at least 10% of your tuition fees or after you have provided the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles Direction des Allocations et des Prêts d’Etudes (DAPE) with your scholarship application number.

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.

The student card and the “sport card” are one and the same. If you have requested a sport card, a coloured band containing the word “sport” will appear on the top of your student card.

Please contact the Enrolment Office.

All requests for a replacement card must be submitted to the Enrolment Office by email, attaching this form, completed and signed. No fee will be charged for the replacement of your student card. However, only two replacement requests per year will be accepted. For more than two requests, you will need to use your identity card or your virtual student card to identify yourself.

The access card costs €20 and must be ordered via your virtual office.

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.

Please contact Louvain Coopération.

Please contact the UCLouvain External Relations and Communication Department (AREC).