Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL)

No. It's important to assist and interact with both teachers and local students, but this recommendation would be the same for anyone at any university.

The person who had to give me some orientation wasn't too kind with international students. They assumed we knew how things worked at the university but there are many different things we may not know. For example, at my home university it wasn't necessary to register for final exams but at Université Catholique de Louvain, at some of the faculties it was necessary to do it. It's important to give this information at the beginning.

The courses in the field of Supply Chain Management are highly sophisticated and I recommand everybody that is studing Logistics to take them. Anyway, it has to be said that they also require advanced skills in mathematics;

The Belgian point system works differently then in other countries. Although you can theoretically get 20 out of 20 points, it is usually impossible to score that high. So don't be embarressed if you get 16/20, it is still a really good mark.

Don't miss too many courses because you have 2 weeks exams at the end of the semester and only 2 weeks to prepare all (it's called the "blocus"): pretty hard! Ask for tips to previous students

Bad balanced between first and second semester (at the management faculty) : not so many thing to do during the first one (parties!), but almost no time for social life during the second semester. I really regret to end my student life like this!

Try also French courses, not only English ones. Ask local students about courses and teachers. Prepare for group work and oral exams.

More transparency in assessment; more individual assessment; better command of English of teachers (who teach in English); more info on the content of the courses prior to choosing them

Make sure you will be allowed to go the the courses you've chosen. You must speak fluent french to take most of them. As far as I know it depends on what your studying. In Commu (Communication) they were very strict about it.

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Choosing the course is really difficult, pay attention mainly to the starting dates of lessons often not specified

The organzation of some courses is too superficial and doesn't correspond to the number of ECTS.