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General information about the procedure for outgoing FEA students

The exchange of students with other countries is regulated by bilateral agreements (Europe) and cooperation agreements (outside of Europe) with international universities.

For destinations in Europe, students can only choose an institution on the list of agreements made up for their education programme. It is not possible to choose a destination in Europe which is not intended for your study programme.

For destinations outside of Europe, students from the education programme for which the cooperation agreement is intended, have priority for these places. Only when there are vacant places, your education programme is taught there and your education programme committee agrees on this exchange, you can apply.

 

To guide you through the following procedure, three types of people are important:

  1. The BILAK Contact Person (BCP), who maintains contact with the foreign destination, and who helps you choose the course units abroad and complete your total curriculum at Ghent University during your exchange year. You can find the BCP in the list of destinations of the education programme. The BCP needs to sign the curriculum form before you can upload this form in OASIS.
  2. The Study Programme Committee of your Master’s programme, which has to approve your entire curriculum so as to check if it meets the requirements of the Master’s degree. Within each study programme committee, one person or several people act(s) as the Departmental Coordinator (DC): he or she will have to approve your programme. The approval runs electronically through OASIS.
  3. The Faculty International Relations Office (FIRO) monitors the progress of the procedure and intervenes in case of problems.

Run through the following procedure accurately and your preparation will run smoothly.

Choosing…

  1. Make sure to attend the Faculty information session.
  2. Read the roadmap for Ghent University students carefully. This plan contains useful links for the preparation of your mobility, info about the funding possibilities, etc. 
  3. Decide in which country and at which university you want to study using the list with partner institutions. Choose a destination within your own study programme.
  4. Check if you comply with the admission requirements of your study programme.
  5. Make an appointment with the BCP to discuss the exchange.

I want to go on an Erasmus exchange

  1. Apply to the responsible BCP and decide together with him / her which course units you want to take abroad.
    • Together with the BCP, fill in the Curriculum Form and have it signed.
    • This form contains the overview of your curriculum during the entire exchange year, even if you are only spending one semester abroad. This way, the study programma committee can evaluate your curriculum in terms of equality with the regular study programme. The curriculum form needs to be uploaded in Oasis at the time of online application in Oasis.
  2. Log in to OASIS and fill in the application for your exchange. Don't forget the extra conditions for the faculty of Engineering and Architecture:
  • Motivation: compulsory
  • Curriculum in exchange: compulsory
  • Documents: curriculum form, signed by the BCP, compulsory

Decision on your file

  1. The applications approved by the faculty are sent to the International Relations Office [IRO]. In the first half of April, the International Relations Office nominates each student to the host institution he/she is assigned to. You will receive a confirmation email through Oasis.

  2. You will be contacted by the partner institution directly. For students leaving the 1st semester, this will approximately be by the end of June. For students leaving the 2nd semester, this will approximately be by the end of December. Please inform us about your acceptance by the partner institution and report eventual problems as soon as possible.

  3. Most host universities have their own application procedure and will , amongst other formalities, require you to also complete the application form of the host department. Check this yourself. Neither the International Relations Office, nor the Faculty will intervene in this procedure. Note that at some universities the academic year starts earlier than at Ghent University. This means that the deadline for handing in the application form will also be set earlier. For further information, you can consult the International Relations Office of the partner institution. It is the student's responsibility to apply on time.

  4. Information on language courses at the UCT and certificates can be found in the roadmap for Ghent University students. Possible language certificates requested are IELTS, TOEFL, …
  5. Shortly before your departure, you will be contacted by the central office about the practical arrangements.
  6. The faculty international relations office will monitor your results after 1st exam session in July. When noticed that the admission requirements of your education programme for exchange are not met due to retake of exams, the education programme committee will contact you to discuss your exchange. When necessary, this procedure will be repeated after 2nd exam session. It is the final decision of the education programme committee whether you can go on exchange or not. Even if your application is complete and you have been accepted by the host institution, it is still compulsory that you do fulfill the admission requirements. Going abroad without the approval of the education programme committee is not allowed. In this case, the student will be required to return to Ghent University. The student will be held responsible for possible costs for this operation and also for possible implications for the curriculum (e.g. illegal absence during practica). In order to avoid this, ask for an appointment with the study programme committee to get the official approval.
  7. In case you wish to cancel your application, notify the Faculty International Relations Officer immediately, but you can only do this on the basis of a strong motivation or in case of “force majeure”. Places are limited, time is precious, many hours to draw up an exchange file cost money, but most of all, not taking up an exchange is damaging the Faculty’s reputation with partners and might have serious consequences for continuing the bilateral agreement.

I have been accepted

  1. Please upload the document Learning Agreement – signed by the partner institution and your DC – in Oasis before departure. Upon arrival you will be able to make changes to your curriculum (also see “During your stay”), these changes will be registered in the document “Changes to the Learning Agreement”.
  2. If you will be completing your Master thesis abroad, you also need to register this in Plato before 15th of May (academic year before the exchange). Upload the signed Master Thesis Information Sheet  by the 15th of November (academic year of the exchange) in your application in Oasis. Please make sure to consult the FEA modalities for Master Dissertations
  3. Enroll again at Ghent University for the Master programme you wish to study, preferably as soon as possible after the degree ceremony (only as of then the FSA can upload your curriculum to Oasis).
  4. Keep in mind that the study programme committee will check your results. You can only leave in exchange after official approval by your study programme committee.
  5. You are good to go! It is recommended to leave 1 or 2 weeks before the start of your classes for all practical arrangements. Some destinations require this and offer welcome sessions (with language workshops). In case this conflicts with a possible 2nd exam session or the final result of the exam session, please contact your education programme committee.

During your stay

At the beginning of your stay you compose your final programme. You have the possibility to make some changes to the programme you composed before your departure. You are required to inform the coordinator of your education programme of any potential changes, as your final programme needs to be accepted again by three parties (the partner institution, your education programme and UGent). After discussion and acceptance this will result in a Learning Agreement during mobility, which will be the basis for your official program in Oasis. You will be informed via email about the deadlines to make these changes.

For all questions about scholarships: please contact international@ugent.be.

Should there be any problem with your study programme at the destination, always contact the Learning Track Counsellor.

    After returning to Belgium

    1. The partner university will issue a Transcript of Records with the results of your exams. Your grades will be converted to the local grading system used at Ghent University using the FEA conversion methods and tables.  This grade conversion is done according to guidelines set at the European level and/or guidelines established by the Faculty and the education programmes. It is the responsibility of the student to hand in the original Transcript of Records in time. You can bring it to the faculty international relations office  or upload this in Oasis (please notify us).
    2. After returning from the international partner institution, you should hand in the following documents to the central office to receive the last payment of your scholarship: Confirmation of Stay, Survey, OLS language test
    3. We strongly advise you to contact the coordinator of your education programme (BCP) for a debrief on your exchange (positive and/or negative experiences) and provide information that can be useful for the next batch of students wanting to go on an exchange. Some training programs will invite you for this.