Admission requirements

Direct admission:

• academic bachelor of Information Sciences
• academic bachelor of Computer Science
• academic bachelor of Engineering Sciences: Computer Science

There are several criteria applicants with an international previous education must meet: academic requirements, programme specific requirements and English-language proficiency requirements.

1.      Academic admission requirements

You can apply for our master's programme if your bachelor's degree is deemed comparable to the University of Antwerp's bachelor's degree in Computer Science.  If you have a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or Artificial Intelligence, or in a Computer Science-related programme from a foreign university with a level similar to Belgian universities, you are eligible to apply.

2.      Programme specific admission requirements

The Admission Board will also the assess whether your degree and background are sufficiently related to the level and content of our own BSc degree in Computer Science. 

Given the wide variety of computer science and informatics degrees, the Board of Admissions checks in particular:

• Software engineering background: is the candidate familiar with object-oriented software development? Does the program include software-engineering courses with a significant software development component? Will the candidate be able to independently program software? Programs in which computer science was studied as a minor often lack in this respect.
• Is there a solid mathematics background? Does the curriculum include advanced courses on discrete mathematics, linear algebra, calculus, and statistics? Coverage of these topics is often an issue in more application-oriented studies.
• Does the curriculum cover theoretical computer science subjects? This includes the study of data structures, algorithm analysis, and computational complexity. Coverage of these topics is often an issue in more IT management, Informatics-like or Electrical Engineering-oriented bachelor’s programs.

How to demonstrate that you meet the programme specific requirements

You are required to indicate how you meet these programme specific admission requirements through our prescreening form.

This prescreening form is an essential element in this assessment, for the Board of Admissions and for yourself. Make sure to complete it rigorously and honestly. Based on your transcripts and the pre-screening form, the Board of Admissions checks if there is a good match of the topics covered by your Bachelor's program and our Bachelor's in Computer Science. The subjects are grouped into "Computer skills", "math skills", "theoretical computer science", "databases", "software engineering", and "computer networks". The board’s flexibility on which of these groups are not covered by courses you have taken is very limited. Also, self-study is only taken into account as reinforcement in a group where insufficiently many courses are listed, not as a replacement.

3.      Language requirements

The programme is taught in English and an academic level of proficiency in this language is imperative.

Candidates with a bachelor degree from universities outside Flanders are required to demonstrate their English language skills in by submitting one of the language certificates listed here.