The pre-admission is a one-year temporary admission which is restricted to very specific situations (e.g. foreign candidates who require an admission certificate from the PhD commission for their first visa application). Any pre-admission application must be duly justified. Your supervisor is best suited to recommend whether you should apply for a pre-admission.
If you do not hold a master degree delivered by a belgian academic institution, you must first fill in a form at the UCL registration office (SIC) which will verify the validity of your diplomas. Keep the attachment in the confirmation email that is sent to you as soon as you have filled this form.
Before you start filling your pre-admission file, make sure you have the following information with you:
- Your diplomas (bachelor / undergraduate, master,…), including transcript records for each year or semester
- A tentative title of your PhD
- The name, coordinates and agreement of your tentative supervisor, who must be an academic member of the Sciences and Technology Sector of UCL
- Optionally, a list of master-level courses that you have to follow, in addition to the regular doctoral training. This list should be established with your supervisor.
- The attachment of the confirmation email sent by the registration office (SIC) (only if you do not hold a master degree delivered by a belgian academic institution).
In the online application, you should go through the following steps:
- In the MY ACADEMIC CV area, fill in your academic CV (bachelor / undergraduate, master,…) as completely as possible. You must upload a PDF copy of your diploma and of transcript records for each year or semester. Based on the information you provide, the PhD commission which will evaluate your eligibility to the PhD programme.
- In the My PHD > ADMISSION > Home area, select “Pre-Admission”. In the Justification field, explain why you do not proceed directly with a regular admission. Then SAVE your changes.
- In the My PHD > ADMISSION > Research area, fill the tentative title of your PhD.
- In the My PHD > ADMISSION > Additional programme area, add each of the master-level courses that your supervisor has recommended. The additional programme is not mandatory.
- In the My PHD > ADMISSION > Supervisory panel area, add the name and coordinates of your supervisor.
- In the My PHD > ADMISSION > Signatures area, provide the signature of your supervisor. You can do this in two different ways.
- Either you check the box at the left of your supervisor and click the SEND button. An email will be sent to your supervisor, asking him/her to validate your application. The status field will change to “Invited to sign”. At this stage, you can log off the application. Once your supervisor has signed and the status, you can log in the application. The status should have changed to “Member has signed”.
- If you already have a document (email…) whereby your supervisor gives his/her consent to your application, you can upload this document (PDF format) using the letter icon at the right of your supervisor. The status will change to “Signature uploaded”.
- In the My PHD > ADMISSION > UCL Registration area, upload the document sent by the registration office (only if you do not hold a master degree delivered by a belgian academic institution).
- In the My PHD > ADMISSION > SUBMIT area, SUBMIT your application. You can download a PDF document which contains most of the information you have filled in. Once your application is submitted, it will be locked until the decision of the PhD commission.
If your application is accepted by the PhD commission, an official pre-admission letter will be sent to your promotor. This letter contains the instructions to register to the PhD programme of UCL. Remember that the pre-admission is valid only for one year. You must apply for the regular admission within one year of your pre-admission. It is strongly recommended that you proceed to this regular admission as soon as you have settled in your lab.
You will be notified by email if your application is not accepted by the commission. This could be the case if informations are missing/unclear or if you are not eligible to the PhD programme. In the former case, your file will be unlocked and you will be able to provide the missing information and re-submit your application. In the latter case, your account will be locked and you will not be able to login to the application anymore.