Internationalisation

The Louvain School of Engineering (EPL) participates since their inception in the various existing mobility programmes at the European as well as worldwide levels.

The students' interest in internationalisation and mobility is aroused as of the end of their bachelor programmes, notably through the existence of intensive study programmes such as the ATHENS or BEST networks.  These networks are also accessible in the master programme and allow the students to get a first contact with international mobility.

In addition, in the context of the Erasmus and Mercator exchange programmes, students have the possibility of performing and extended stay of typically 5 months (first semester of the second master year) at a partner university.  To this extent, the Louvain School of Engineering (EPL) participates in several networks.

• In Belgium, EPL maintains a privileged partnership with the Faculteit Ingenieurswetenschappen of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven with which it has developed an exchange programme covering the first year of the master.
• At the European level, EPL was particularly involved in the CLUSTER. CLUSTER provides a guarantee of quality, both in terms of education and in terms of hosting for exchange students. Moreover, the CLUSTER partners have signed a convention of mutual recognition of their bachelor programmes. This convention implies that all bachelors of the CLUSTER institutions benefit, in each institution of the network, of the same accessibility conditions to the masters as the local students.
• Outside of Europe, EPL is a partner of the Magalhaẽs network which associates fifteen European universities with the best universities in science and technology of Latin America.

Alongside these network partnerships, the Louvain School of Engineering has also signed a number of individual agreements with various universities in Europe, in North America and elsewhere in the world. The list of these agreements can be found on UCL's International Relations Administration website.

Moreover, several dual master agreements have been set up and allow, after two years of master (one at UCL, the other in a host university), to obtain engineering degrees from both universities.  In computer science engineering, such agreements have been established with UPC (Barcelona, Spain) and Grenoble (France).  Others are currently being negotiated.

The students are informed about the various exchange programmes at the start of their second bachelor year. They are invited to prepare in time, especially at the linguistic level, through the courses of UCL's Language Institute (ILV).

Beyond exchange programmes, an internship may be conducted in a research laboratory or in an enterprise abroad.

More information about mobility programmes.

Incoming students

In the context of the Cluster network, foreign students benefit at UCL from exactly the same status and conditions as local students, which facilitates Erasmus exchanges for students coming from institutes in this network.

The whole programme is offered in English and can be followed without prior knowledge of French, except for the options in biomedical engineering, management and creation of small and medium-sized enterprises. All courses, but a few exceptions, are given in English. For non-French-speaking students, alternatives to the courses in French will be proposed by the programme commission on a case-by-case basis, according to the student's curriculum.

More information about mobility programmes.