How to apply

1. Admission Requirements

1.1. Academic degree


Candidates must hold a higher education diploma issued by a competent Higher Education authority attesting the completion of a degree equivalent to a first cycle (180 ECTS - or higher) in the field of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chemistry, Biology (incl. Biochemistry), Bio-(incl. environmental, chemical and food) Engineering, Human or Veterinary Medicine, Biomedical sciences or equivalent (which then requires formal equivalency by an official body in one of the 4 consortium countries, e.g. ENIC-NARIC).


Before the final selection of the applicant, the diploma and its transcripts have to be legalized according to the legalization procedure applicable. If these documents are not in Dutch, French, German or English, the applicant is required to add scans of these documents in one of these languages, translated by a sworn translator. Please have a look at the Ghent University website how legalization can be performed and start-up this process well in advance!


Note: Students in their last year of such a study programme at the time of application will also be considered for admission. It is the applicant's responsibility that the required degree is obtained prior to the start of the S-DISCO programme.

1.2. English language


S-DISCO is an English taught programme and an English language proficiency is therefore a basic requirement. Therefore, applicants need to provide a certificate of proficiency in English, which should be at least a B2 level according to the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference). Certificates issued for English-taught courses or study programs will not be considered proof of language proficiency.

2. Application Procedure

The application and selection procedure in 5 steps:

  1. Determine whether you are eligible for the S-DISCO programme by checking carefully the Admission Requirements.
  2. Before you begin, make sure you have the required documents (see checklist hereunder) ready. Also, other information will be asked for, such as the e-mail address of the embassy where you will apply for your visa (if you are a non-EU student), the GPA scores or the coordinates of 2 reference persons.
  3. Create an UGent OASIS account by clicking the “Apply now” button. After registration, you can online fill in the application form and submit it prior to the set deadlines (see Timings). Note: there is one single Application Form for both admission to the programme and the scholarship application.
  4. In the week after the application deadline, you will be invited to fill in an online test; this test contains 10 general as well as 10 basic knowledge (chemistry, data science and biology) questions.
  5. Next to the scores for the online test and Bachelor/Master GPA values, further ranking is based on (1) the educational background (50%), with emphasis on organic chemistry, statistics/math and cell/genetic/immune biology, (2) the curriculum vitae (20%), (3) motivation letter (20%), and (4) the references (10%).
  6. In case your file has been evaluated as positive by the Selection Committee, you will be invited for an online interview, which is the last phase in the Application Procedure. In the invitation, you will receive different topics/manuscripts from which you will choose one and prepare a lecture (presentation) of 5 minutes about this topic.
  7. During the online interview, you will give your 5-minutes lecture and will be questioned about the topic/content of the manuscript.

Any student can apply in any year and any year is evaluated independently; if the student re-applies, he/she will be reevaluated in comparison to all the students that apply in that respective year. If you would not agree with the procedure of evaluation, an appeal can be filed to SDISCO@UGent.be.

1. Checklist of documents


The candidates are asked to submit the following documents through the application platform:


  • a passport photo
  • a copy of their passport (or other official identification proof for EEA students)
  • a letter of motivation (max. 1 page).
  • a complete curriculum vitae (preferably in Europass format, or max. 3 pages).
  • a copy of their Bachelor of Science diploma (plus English translation), or a formal letter from their university stating they will finish their Bachelor of Science programme before their enrolment in the S-DISCO master programme, plus a formal equivalency if required. Please combine separate files or pages into a single PDF file.
  • official university transcript of records (plus English translation) which includes a detailed list of all courses taken with their credit hours and results, the final grade received, an explanation of the grading system used, and an indication of the student’s rank within her/his cohort (including cohort size). If the candidate has not yet finalised the Bachelor of Science programme, all courses still on-going should be given as well as the results up to the moment of application. Please combine separate files or pages into a single PDF file.
  • certification of proficiency in English, i.e. minimum B2 level according to the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference).
  • a merged PDF file, containing (in this order): the bachelor degree, the bachelor degree transcript of records, the master degree (if applicable), the master degree transcript of records (if applicable), the motivation letter and the curriculum vitae.
  • a recommendation letter as a form (download here) filled out by two independent referees. This document (in PDF format) should be emailed to SDISCO@UGent.be by the two reference persons (not the student) before the application deadline. Please check yourself with your referees if they have sent us the documents, in order to fully evaluate your application file.

2. Timings (academic year 2024-2025)


For scholarship and self-funded applicants:


  • Applications open: 24 July 2023
  • Online application submission deadline: 1 December 2023
  • Online test: 2 – 5 December 2023
  • Possible invitation for online interview, incl. topic selection: December 2023
  • Possible online interview: January 2024
  • Final selection of applicants (admission letter): January 2024

Only for self-funded applicants (extra application round):


  • Online application submission deadline: 31 January 2024
  • Online test: 2 – 5 February 2024
  • Possible invitation for online interview, incl. topic selection: February 2024
  • Possible online interview: March 2024
  • Final selection of applicants (admission letter): March 2024

3. Application Form

When the application is open, please use the link below to 1) register, and after registration, 2) apply as an applicant for the S-DISCO programme. After the submission of the application, you will be informed about the validation results.

APPLY NOW  

4. Student Categories

For this S-DISCO programme, no nationality restrictions are applied. Students from all nationalities are thus welcome to submit their application.

5. Student Agreement

Prior to enrolling to S-DISCO, all students will be asked to sign the S-DISCO Student Agreement, listing the students’ rights and duties.

The European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA), in the context of managing the Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters, collects and processes the personal data of some of the candidates. In particular, certain data of the scholarship holders and non-scholarship holders is shared with the Agency and treated according to this privacy statement.

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