Your admission file must be discussed beforehand with your (future) supervisor. He is the best person to guide you in setting up your research proposal and your training programme and to establish your supervisory panel.
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.
As you start filling your admission file, make sure you have the following information with you:
- Your diplomas (bachelor / undergraduate, master,…), including transcript records for each year or semester. The transcript records are not needed for degrees delivered by a belgian academic institution.
- A research proposal (about 3-page long).
- 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.
- A tentative doctoral training programme, consisting of a list of training and communication activities which you anticipate to do, for a total of 40 ECTS. It is expected that this programme will evolve during your PhD. The conditions of eligibility of training activities and their default ECTS values are explained in the section 4 of the SST provisions of the doctoral regulation. Your programme should comprise at least 15 ECTS of training, 15 ECTS of communication and at maximum 6 ECTS of teaching.
- The name, coordinates and agreement of your supervisor(s), who must be an academic member of the Sciences and Technology Sector of UCL. You may have a maximum of two co-supervisors.
- The name, coordinates and agreement of the members of your supervisory panels (a minimum of two members) who should own a PhD degree. They may not belong to the Sciences and Technology Sector of UCL, but must commit to follow your work and provide guidance along with your supervisor(s).
- 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 “Admission” and SAVE your selectio.
- In the My PHD > ADMISSION > Research area, fill the title of your PhD and upload your research project as a PDF file.
- 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 > Doctoral training area, add each of the activities that you anticipate to be your doctorat training.
- In the My PHD > ADMISSION > Supervisory panel area, add the name and coordinates of your supervisor(s) and of the other members of your supervisory panel. If you have two supervisors, select the letter icon in front of the supervisor who will be contacted by the PhD commission to sign your training requests during your PhD. The letter icon should be green.
- In the My PHD > ADMISSION > Signatures area, provide the signature of all members of your supervisory panel. You can do this in two different ways.
- Either you check the box at the left of the member(s) and click the SEND button. An email will be sent to each selected member, 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. You can track whenever members have signed by logging into the application. The status should have changed to “Member has signed”.
- If you already have a document (email…) whereby a member gives his/her consent to your application, you can upload this document (PDF format) using the letter icon at the right of that member. 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 admission letter will be sent to your promotor. This letter contains the instructions to register to the PhD programme of UCL. You will also notice that the CONFIRMATION, MY ADDITIONAL PROGRAMME and MY DOCTORAL TRAINING areas have been made accessible.
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.