All programmes > Programme > Course of study : Preparatory Programme: Master of Criminology (Leuven)

Preparatory Programme: Master of Criminology (Leuven) (24 ECTS)

Students with a degree obtained at an institution of the Flemish Community

After admission procedure

Applicants must hold an academic bachelor's or master's degree in Humanities equivalent to: Political and Social Sciences, Communication Sciences, Law, Psychology and Educational Sciences. Holders of other academic bachelor’s and master’s degrees could exceptionally be admitted. The applicant must prove:

- having had a basic training in criminal law and criminal procedure (either regional, European or international). Applicants who didn’t already obtain a basic training in criminal law and criminal procedure, can take either the course C06B8A ‘European Criminal Law, including Discussion Sessions’ (first term) or (preferably) C09B9B ‘International Criminal Law’ (second term). Students who are interested in one of these courses should contact the faculty via law.macrim@kuleuven.be after admission.
- having had sufficient methodology training (for at least 22 ECTS) in the field of setting up a scientific research, especially concerning research design, data collection, data analysis, reporting research and statistics.

Additional information

Admission decisions are always based upon evaluation of a complete application file.
For students with a Flemish degree: please contact the international office of the Faculty Law and Criminology of KU Leuven.

Students with a degree not obtained at an institution of the Flemish Community

Students who did not obtain their previous degree(s) at an institution of the Flemish Community should submit an application via the Admissions Office: https://www.kuleuven.be/english/application/.

You can find a list of core documents, which should be submitted with every application, here: https://www.kuleuven.be/english/application/requesteddocuments.

Diploma requirements

Applicants must hold a Belgian academic bachelor's or master's degree in Humanities, or hold a foreign bachelor's or master's degree equivalent to a degree in Political and Social Sciences, Communication Sciences, Law, Psychology and Educational Sciences.

Holders of other academic bachelor's and master's degrees could exceptionally be admitted.

Language requirements

Applicants must prove their English language proficiency by means of any of the following certificates:

- TOEFL iBT certificate with a minimum overall score of 100 (minimum 600 "paper based", minimum 250 "computer based" and minimum 100 "internet based)
- IELTS Academic certificate with a minimum overall score of 7.0
- Cambridge C1 Advanced (CAE) or C2 Proficiency (CPE) certificate with a minimum overall score of 180

Applicants who have obtained a previous diploma (secondary or higher education) taught in English in Australia, English-speaking Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States of America are deemed to have fulfilled the language requirements.

Additional requirements

Applicants must prove:

- having had a basic training in criminal law and criminal procedure (either regional, European or international). Applicants who didn’t already obtain a basic training in criminal law and criminal procedure, can take either the course C06B8A ‘European Criminal Law, including Discussion Sessions’ (first term) or (preferably) C09B9B ‘International Criminal Law’ (second term). Students who are interested in one of these courses should contact the faculty via law.macrim@kuleuven.be after admission.
- having had sufficient methodology training (for at least 22 ECTS) in the field of setting up a scientific research, especially concerning research design, data collection, data analysis, reporting research and statistics.

Students with a degree obtained at an institution of the Flemish Community

After admission procedure

Additional information

Students with a degree not obtained at an institution of the Flemish Community

Diploma requirements

Language requirements

Applicants must prove their English language proficiency by means of any of the following certificates:

- TOEFL iBT certificate with a minimum overall score of 100 (minimum 600 "paper based", minimum 250 "computer based" and minimum 100 "internet based)
- IELTS Academic certificate with a minimum overall score of 7.0
- Cambridge C1 Advanced (CAE) or C2 Proficiency (CPE) certificate with a minimum overall score of 180

Additional requirements

Applicants must prove:

- having had a basic training in criminal law and criminal procedure (either regional, European or international). Applicants who didn’t already obtain a basic training in criminal law and criminal procedure, can take either the course C06B8A ‘European Criminal Law, including Discussion Sessions’ (first term) or (preferably) C09B9B ‘International Criminal Law’ (second term). Students who are interested in one of these courses should contact the faculty via law.macrim@kuleuven.be after admission.
- having had sufficient methodology training (for at least 22 ECTS) in the field of setting up a scientific research, especially concerning research design, data collection, data analysis, reporting research and statistics.

Schedule

Preparatory Programme: Master of Criminology

The Preparatory Programme for the Master of Criminology allows non-Dutch speaking (and usually foreign) students with a bachelor degree in either social sciences or law to access our Master of Criminology. Due to uneven institutionalization of criminology worldwide and even in Europe, in fact, many young people interested in criminology have no chance of obtaining a bachelor in criminology in their home countries—and can only access our master programme through a preparatory programme.

The programme is to a certain extent tailor-made depending on the disciplinary background of the student. Students who did not already obtain a basic training in criminal law and criminal procedure, have to take either the course C06B8A ‘European Criminal Law, including Discussion Sessions’ (first term) or (preferably) C09B9B ‘International Criminal Law’ (second term). Students who are interested in one of these courses should contact the faculty via law.macrim@kuleuven.be.

At the core of the preparatory programme there are, however, three courses for a total of 24 ETCS, that all students without a bachelor in criminology have to follow:

Criminology: An Introduction’ (12 ECTS), ‘Person- and Organization-Oriented Criminological Interventions’ (4 ECTS) and ‘Criminological Paper’ (8 ECTS):

These three courses are offered both in the first and in the second academic semester. Although a limit number of contact moments are offered on campus, the three courses do not require the presence of the students in Leuven and can also be fully followed via internet. In other words, they are not normal courses with the usual amount of contact moments. Students interact primarily with the professor and teaching team through TOLEDO, the KU Leuven electronic learning platform, have to deal with the course materials autonomously, and can do this at their own speed, with an evaluation at the end of the academic semester during the regular examination period.