Eligibility requirements

Bachelor

General conditions

Admission qualification

To be admitted to a Bachelor's programme, you must hold:

• A CESS (Certificate of Upper Secondary Education) issued from June 1994 onwards;

• A CESS (Certificate of Upper Secondary Education) issued no later than at the end of the 1992–1993 school year, together with a diploma granting access to higher education;

• A diploma awarded by a higher education institution in the French Community of Belgium certifying an academic degree awarded pursuant to this Decree, or a diploma awarded by a university institution or an institution providing full-time higher education under previous legislation;

• A higher education certificate or diploma awarded by an adult education institution;

• A certificate of successful completion of one of the admission examinations organised by higher education institutions or by an examination board of the French Community of Belgium; 

• A diploma, qualification or certificate of studies similar to those mentioned above, awarded by the Flemish Community, the German-speaking Community or the Royal Military Academy;

• A diploma granting access to higher education (DAES) awarded by the examination board of the French Community of Belgium;

• A foreign diploma, qualification or certificate of studies recognised as equivalent to those mentioned above pursuant to federal, community or European legislation or an international agreement.

In particular:

• The European Baccalaureate awarded by the Board of Governors of the European Schools;

• The International Baccalaureate of Geneva, awarded by the International Baccalaureate Office in Geneva;

• The Baccalaureate awarded by the SHAPE School in Casteau;

Or a foreign diploma for which an equivalence decision has been issued by the Equivalence Department of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation.

More information on equivalence

Admission without the required qualifications

If you do not hold the required admission qualifications, you may take the admission examination for first-cycle studies.

Entrance exam or admission examination

• Medicine and Dentistry: Admission to medical sciences or dental sciences programmes in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation is conditional upon passing and being selected through an entrance examination organised by ARES.
  
  Non-EU students wishing to enrol at ULB in a Bachelor's programme in Medicine or Dental Sciences:
  We recommend registering for the ARES entrance examination as soon as registration opens on their website. ARES will provide you with the documents required to come to Belgium and take the examination. After the entrance examination, if you pass and receive a selection certificate, we will contact you to proceed with your enrolment at ULB.

• Civil Engineering – Polytech: Admission to Civil Engineering studies is conditional upon passing a special admission examination, organised by the Faculties of Applied Sciences and Engineering Schools of the French Community of Belgium.

Admission quotas

Programmes subject to admission quotas are programmes for which the number of non-resident students enrolling for the first time in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation is regulated.

• Medicine

• Dental Sciences

• Veterinary Medicine

• Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation

• Psychological and Educational Sciences, Speech and Language Therapy track

 Non-EU students 

If you are a national of a country outside the European Union and do not meet one of the criteria set out in Article 3 of the Decree of 11 April 2014 adapting the funding of higher education institutions to the new organisation of studies and you wish to submit an application for a first-cycle programme, you will be subject to the criteria of the Central Admissions Committee for first-cycle studies.

Applicants who are not considered equivalent to Belgian students are required to pay an administrative fee of €200 no later than 31 March.
This payment is a prerequisite for the application to be examined.

Please note: international transfer fees are payable by applicants.

As these administrative fees are non-refundable in the event of refusal of admission or if the applicant does not finalise their enrolment for the academic year concerned, applicants are strongly advised to check carefully that they meet the Committee's criteria.

More information on administrative fees 

Accreditation of prior experience

If you do not hold the required admission qualifications but can demonstrate at least 5 years of professional or personal experience (including a maximum of two successfully completed years of study), ULB offers you the possibility of formally recognising this experience as a means of gaining access to a study programme of your choice. 

Admission to these studies is nevertheless subject to the decision of the academic jury, based on an admission application. 

More information on the Accreditation of Prior Experience.

Master

General conditions

Master's programmes are organised in different formats depending on the programme: there are 60-credit Master's programmes, 120-credit Master's programmes and even 180-credit Master's programmes.

Programmes designed to provide a more specialised professional qualification may be taken after a 120- or 180-credit Master's degree; these are known as “Advanced Master's programmes”.

If you hold a Bachelor's degree awarded by a university of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, you have direct access to the corresponding Master's programme. Details of the admission requirements for each Master's programme are available in the course catalogue

French proficiency:

You will be required to take a French language proficiency test for all Master's programmes in Teaching, in accordance with the legal requirements governing Initial Teacher Education.

Bridging programmes

If you are already enrolled in higher education, the Wallonia-Brussels Federation gives you the opportunity to redirect your study pathway or continue it towards programmes other than those you initially chose.

Bridging programmes providing access to second-cycle university studies are laid down by decree and provide access from short-cycle or long-cycle non-university higher education to university programmes.

Please note: as part of a bridging programme, you may be required to complete an additional programme of up to 60 credits (replacing the former preparatory year).

Foreign degree

If you completed higher education studies abroad, the academic jury will assess the comparability of your previous studies with the programme you wish to pursue. If the jury agrees to recognise the foreign higher education degree for at least 180 credits, an equivalence is not required when applying for admission to a Master's programme.

More information on degree equivalence.

Accreditation of prior experience

If you do not hold the required admission qualifications but can demonstrate at least 5 years of professional or personal experience (including a maximum of two successfully completed years of study), ULB offers you the possibility of formally recognising this experience as a means of gaining access to a study programme of your choice. 

Admission to these studies is nevertheless subject to the decision of the academic jury, based on an admission application. 

More information on the Accreditation of Prior Experience.

 Non-EU students

Applicants who are not considered equivalent to Belgian students are required to pay an administrative fee of €200 into account BE83 3631 1624 2315 (Bank name and address: ING, Avenue Marnix 24, 1000 Brussels - BIC code: BBRU BE BB), no later than 31 March.

This payment is a prerequisite for the application to be examined.

Please note: international transfer fees are payable by applicants.

As these administrative fees are non-refundable in the event of refusal of admission or if the applicant does not finalise their enrolment for the academic year concerned, applicants are strongly advised to check carefully that they meet the admission requirements for the programme concerned.

More information on administrative fees 

PhD

To be admitted to a PhD programme, you must first meet the admission requirements.

To be admitted to a PhD programme, you must hold:

• a Master's degree worth at least 120 credits, awarded by a university of the French Community of Belgium;

• a similar academic degree awarded by a higher education institution, in Belgium or abroad, including a "licence" degree obtained in university education in the French Community of Belgium before the implementation of the Bologna Reform;

• a foreign academic degree recognised as equivalent to those mentioned above by the French Community of Belgium;

• another second-cycle degree, obtained in Belgium or abroad, recognised as equivalent to at least 300 credits by the Faculty Doctoral Committee;

• a degree awarded outside the French Community of Belgium which, in the education system of the country in which it was awarded, provides direct access to doctoral training or a PhD programme. Formal and authentic proof of eligibility to pursue doctoral studies in the education system concerned must be included in the admission application.

Please note that all admissions to PhD programmes are subject to a decision by the Faculty Doctoral Committee.

The Agrégation de l'enseignement secondaire supérieur (AESS) and Master's programmes with a teaching focus will be discontinued from the start of the 2025 academic year. They will be replaced by a Master's degree in Teaching . Students who were already enrolled in one of these programmes before September 2025 will nevertheless be able to complete it.

Individual courses

Outside of regular enrolment in a degree programme, you may apply to take "individual courses". This type of enrolment is open to everyone, meaning that you do not need to hold a degree to enrol in an individual course.

Enrol in individual courses

Auditing student

Registration as a free auditor is possible throughout the year but is subject to authorisation by the faculty secretariat and to available capacity.

Register as a auditing student

Continuing education

Admission requirements for continuing education programmes vary depending on the programme concerned.

See information on continuing education.

University Examination Board of the French Community of Belgium 

The University Examination Board is intended for anyone who can demonstrate that they are unable to enrol regularly at a university and who wishes, under these circumstances, to undertake first- or second-cycle university studies.
The admission requirements are the same as for regular enrolment in a first- or second-cycle programme at ULB.

Admission requirements for the University Examination Board

You must demonstrate that, for the current academic year, you are objectively unable to attend the learning activities of the chosen programme. (Examples of supporting documents: certificate from a health insurance fund, employment certificate, etc.).

Additional requirement

A student who, for two academic years, has been enrolled at a university institution or with an Examination Board of the French Community of Belgium in the same year of study of the same programme may only enrol or re-enrol with the aforementioned Examination Board after a period corresponding to three academic years.

Register with the University Examination Board of the French Community of Belgium