Eligibility requirements

General conditions

In order to be eligible for a bachelor programme, you must hold either :

• a CESS (‘certificat d'enseignement secondaire supérieur’) delivered after June of 1994;
• a CESS (‘certificat d'enseignement secondaire supérieur’) delivered no later than the 1992-1993 academic year, along with a certificate granting access to higher education;
• a degree awarded by a higher education institution in the French Community of Belgium and delivered pursuant to this decree, or a degree awarded by an academic or higher education institution and delivered pursuant to a previous regulation;
• a higher education certificate or degree delivered by an institution for adult education;
• a certificate showing successful completion of an admission exam held by a higher education institution or a public exam board (‘jury de la Communauté française’);
• a degree or certificate similar to those mentioned above delivered by the Flemish Community, the German Community, or the Royal Military Academy;
• a certificate granting access to higher education (‘DAES’) delivered by the French Community’s public exam board;
• a foreign degree or certificate recognised as equivalent to those mentioned above, pursuant to federal, community, or European regulations, or to an international convention;

In particular:

•  the European Baccalaureate delivered by the Board of Governors of the European Schools;
•  the international baccalaureate delivered by the International Baccalaureate Office of Geneva;
•  the baccalaureate delivered by the SHAPE school in Casteau;

a foreign degree recognised by the equivalency office of the Brussels-Wallonia Federation. More information on equivalencies

Admission without a required degree

Students who do not meet the degree requirements must sit the university's admission exam. 

Entrance exam

• Medecine and dentistry : Mandatory entrance exam organised by ARES. Moreover, Medecine and dentistry programs limit the number of non-resident students who can enrol for the first time in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. More information about ‘études contingentées’ in the next tab.
•  Civil Engineering Polytech : Mandatory entrance exam.

Admission quotas

Some programmes, known in French as ‘études contingentées’, limit the number of non-resident students who can enrol for the first time in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation.

• Medicine
• Dentistry
• Veterinary
• Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation
• Psychology and Education: Speech and Language Therapy

 

Non-EU students

Students from countries outside the EU who wish to enrol in a bachelor programme are subject to the criteria defined by admission board for the bachelor and must pay 200 euros of administrative fees prior the examination of their application. 

General condition

Master programmes can be organised differently depending on their content: there are 60-credit masters, 120-credit masters, and even 180-credit masters. 120-credit master programmes can have three different focuses:

• the teaching focus, which trains students to become teachers;
• the research focus, which prepares students for a career in research, with 30 credits going towards a PhD programme for students who wish to pursue a doctorate in the same field of study as their master;
• the professional focus, which prepares students for the labour market.

Students may enrol into programmes that lead to a more specialised professional qualification after a 120-credit or a 180-credit master; these are called ‘advanced master programmes’.

Any holder of a bachelor's degree delivered by a university in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation is entitled to enrol in the corresponding master programme.

Check your eligibility to ULB masters (for holders of an academic degree from the French Community of Belgium)

The detailed admission requirements for each master programme are available in the ULB programme catalogue.

French proficiency:

If your previous degree was not delivered in the French Community of Belgium, you will be required to pass a French language exam in order to enrol in a master with a teaching focus.

Passerelles

The French Community (WBF) gives students enrolled in higher education the opportunity to reorient their studies or extend them to programmes other than the one they had initially chosen.

The ‘passerelles’ that enable students to access master programmes were defined in a decree that made it possible for graduates from non-academic institutions to enrol in academic programmes.

Please note that students who enrol via a ‘passerelle’ may be required to complete up to 60 credits of additional courses (replacing the preparatory year).

Non-belgian diploma

If you have completed a higher education programme abroad, the admissions board examine whether your previous studies are comparable to the programme to which you are applying. If the admissions board decides to recognise your foreign degree as equivalent to a 180-credit degree or more, you do not need to apply for an equivalency when applying to a master programme, unless you are applying for an ‘agrégation‘ programme.

More information on degree equivalencies.

Accreditation of prior experience

If you wish to resume studies, and you do not have the required qualifications but can justify at least 5 years of professional or personal experience (including maximum two years of successful studies), the ULB offers you the possibility to formalize this experience to make it a key to access a program of your choice. Access to these studies is, however, conditional on the opinion of the academic jury, on the basis of an admission file.

Non EU-students

Non EU-students must pay 200euros of adminitrative fees prior the examination of their application. 

In order to enrol in a PhD programme, you must fulfil the admissions requirements.

In order to enrol in a PhD programme, you must hold either :

• a 120-credit master or more, delivered by a university in the French Community of Belgium a similar academic degree delivered by a higher education institution in Belgium or abroad, including a ‘licence’ delivered by a higher education institution in the French Community of Belgium before the Bologna reform;
• a foreign academic degree recognised by the French Community of Belgium as equivalent to the ones mentioned above;
• another master-level degree delivered in Belgium or abroad, recognised by the faculty's doctoral committee as equivalent to at least 300 credits;
• a degree delivered outside the French Community of Belgium that, in its original academic system, grants direct access to PhD programmes. Applications must include formal proof of the student's eligibility to a PhD programme in their home country.

Please note that all admissions to a doctoral programme are subject to the decision of the faculty's doctoral committee.

General conditions

The detailed requirements for each ‘agrégation’ programme and higher education teaching certificate are available in the ULB programme catalogue.

French proficiency for AESS: you will be required to pass a French language exam if your degree was delivered outside the French Community of Belgium.

Non Eu-students

Non EU-students must pay 200euros of adminitrative fees prior the examination of their application.