The structure of an academic year
- The academic year starts every year in the last week of September.
- There are always 13 weeks of classes in the first and second semester.
- After these 13 weeks of lessons, one or two weeks of exam preparation and three weeks of exams follow; after the exams in February there will be another non-teaching week.
- There are also two weeks of Christmas holidays and two weeks of Easter holidays.
- The re-exams start in the third week of August and also last 3 weeks.
- You can find the exact details of the academic year in the academic calendar. There you will also find which specific holidays KU Leuven uses.
Spreading your study load
You do not have to take a course full-time. You can also choose to study part-time by taking up between 25 and 35 credits per academic year. With the working student status, you may even take less than the compulsory 25 credits (see support optionsfor deviation from credit limits).
Some programs propose a concrete spread of the programme over different academic years. If this is the case, this will be stated in the section "info and support per programme".
What should you take into account when compiling your programme if you wish to spread your training over several years?
1. Determine how many course credits you want to take on
A number of course credits have been allocated to each course unit. This gives you an idea of the study load for this course. Each credit represents 25 to 30 hours of study load for all educational and study activities associated with the course (attending lessons, processing lessons, studying, completing tasks, taking exams, ...).
An ordinary full-time annual program consists of about 60 credits. The average student who takes such a full-time program spends about 38 to 40 hours a week on their studies. If you opt for a half-time program of approximately 30 credits, you can therefore count on 19 to 20 hours per week to be "busy with your studies". In this case, you will of course take twice as long to complete your studies. You can also opt for even fewer credits per year or even more, meaning that you will need a little more or less time respectively to obtain your diploma.
In order to gain insight into your total study duration, you therefore check how many credits your total 'training package' is and how many credits you can take per year.
You can, in consultation with the programme coordinators and/or the academic advisors, see what is possible for you and which courses are interesting to start with.
2.Consult the course timetable of your programme
Perhaps you cancluster the courses on 1 or 2 lesson days or at other times that are combinable with your work situation?
The timetable for the entire study programme and for each individual course unit can be found in the programme guide.
3. Take into account compulsory attendance
Attendance at the lectures is usually not compulsory. In principle, you can sufficiently process the subject matter of these courses via self-study, although attending the lessons remains an added value. Making yourself available during the first week of lectures to attend the first lessons of a number of courses can help you decidewhich lectures you will or will not attend.
Most study programmes have courses with required attendance. You will find this information in the ECTS sheet of the courses:
- If it is stated at the top right that the course unit is excluded from an exam contract, attendance is mandatory.
- If it says in the section "evaluation activities" that the course unit is evaluated by means of continuous evaluation, attendance is mandatory.
- Practice sessions, practical lectures, seminars, master classes and practicals are always mandatory!
4.Look at the evaluation methods used by the different courses
You will find this information in the ECTS sheet of the courses.
Most exams are taken during the exam periods of January, June or August / September. The dates of the exam periods in general can be found in the faculty calendar of your study programme. The exam times of the January and June exam periods are already known at the start of the academic year. For example, when choosing your course units, you can take into account the exam dates, so that you can draw up a feasible exam schedule. However, the resits will not be known until the 4th Monday after the announcement of the exam results. For more information about the exam schedule, see FAQ working students.
Different exam types are possible:
- Exam (written, oral, closed or open book, multiple choice)
- Assignments outside the exam period (permanent evaluation)
- Combination of exam and assignments
5. Which teaching format is used?
Is participation expected during the lessons? You will find this information in the ECTS sheet of the courses.
- Lectures
- Practicals
- Self study
- ...
6. Balanced composition
Ensure a balanced composition of semester 1 and semester 2. Of course, this applies less if you have more space in one semester.
7. Any exclusions?
Check whether courses are excluded from a credit and / or exam contract? You will find this information in the ECTS sheet of the courses.
8. Combination of short preparatory programme & master
Some preparatory programmes contain few courses. You may then combine the preparatory programme with the master on the condition that you include all the courses of the preparatory programme.In concrete terms, this means that you register separately for the two programmes and that you will therefore have two different individual study programs (ISPs).
If it is not practically possible due to your work situation to include all courses of the preparatory programme, it is possible to include courses of the master with a credit contract. The successfully passed courses of the credit contract can then later be converted into exemptions if you take a 'real' registration for the master's programme. Note: this is only possible if in the meantime no programme changes have been made to the master, i.e. the courses passed under a credit contract must still exist in the master's programme at the time of registration.
If you are considering this combination, be sure to discuss this with anacademic advisor first.
9. Risk of refusal
The risk of refusal is greater when only a few courses are included in a bachelor's programme or bridging programme. You can find more information about this in the academic progress measures of KU Leuven.
If you are considering this, be sure to contact anacademic advisor first.
10. Build a challenging programme
Don't just take practicalities into account. Put together a program that challenges you sufficiently in terms of content. If you can only include a limited program, then include sufficient substantive courses in addition to methodological courses.
11. Ask for help
Do not hesitate to let the academic advisor of your study programme and the programme coordinators help you with constructing your programme.
12. Take the next steps
Once you have decided which course units you wish to take, you must arrange your individual study programme and your individual exam schedule via KU Loket after you have registered. Click on the terms below for more information and a step-by-step plan.
- Individual Study Programme (ISP)
- Individual exam schedule (IES)
