Frequently Asked Questions

You do not have to make an appointment. Just come by the walk-in office hours on Tuesdays or Thursdays from 14:00 to 16:00.

Attention: in February there will be extra Office Hours als on Wednesdays!

In some cases, it is possible to go on exchange to a university outside of our partner list as a so called free-mover. Our Board of Examiners would still have to agree on your choice of the university.

However, please note that in this case, you would have to organise the whole exchange yourself, without any help of the Exchange Office. You would have to contact the university in question and enquire if they would accept you and, if yes, under which conditions and after meeting which requirements. You would also not receive a grant from our university.

This means that you would not take part in our application process.

In some cases, the students coming back from exchange allows us to share their contact details with future prospective students. Please contact the Exchange Office and check if any of the previous students are available.

If you have passed all the courses from your main track until now (75 ECTS), you may still apply for an exchange outside of Europe. You would then be selected provisionally, under the condition that you passed your block 2 exams. If you still have a resit in block 2, you may not apply for the first round of the application procedure for an exchange outside of Europe . 

If you have between 75 and 90 ECTS at the moment of application and/or are missing a 1^st year course, you are still allowed to apply for exchange inside of Europe on a Bachelor level, if you upload a Long Term Study Plan signed by your LLB study advisers together with your application.

If selected, your nomination will be provisional until you have obtained the required minimum of 90 ECTS and/or passed the missing 1^st year course(s).

Yes. The rules, procedures and deadlines are exactly the same as for the Bachelor students. The only difference is the level of courses you are allowed to follow during your exchange. As only the Master-level course you followed will be transferred to your LLM diploma, the majority of courses should be on a Master level. Please check the IESE website so see what the available level of courses is at the universities of your choice. I would like to bring your attention especially to our partners in USA and Canada, who mostly only accept the Master students. 

In addition, you will have to prolong your studies, as the semester abroad is an extra-curricular addition to your studies and you cannot replace the core subjects of your programme with similar courses abroad.

Unfortunately, this means that you cannot apply in the first selection round. However, you could submit a late application up until 30 April (if you have the required minimum of 75 ECTS then). Nevertheless, it would only be possible for the partner universities that still have spots available after the first selection round and still are open to receive nominations. You may contact me again after your resits to check which universities are still available.

The reason why your application is incomplete is mentioned in the email you received. Upload the missing documents and/or correct your current application in MO. Then click on “Enter confirmation” to resubmit your application for reevaluation.

DO NOT create a new application!

The Selection Committee strives to place as many students as possible at the university of their first choice. However, this is not always possible due to the high number of candidates applying for a limited spots available. This decision is made by the Committee based on the total amount of applications for the three universities of your choice, your GPA, CV and the motivation letter. The level of your studies, the study progress, extra-curricular activities and your cultural sensitivity play also an important role in this process.

Please wait patiently until we have nominated you. Nomination is a process of us informing all our partners about the students we selected for their exchange programme. We have more than 100 partners and all of them have different systems and deadlines to nominate students. That is why, this process takes a lot of time. Please trust us to nominate you before the deadline of your host university.  

After you have been nominated, you will receive a confirmation email from your host university with instructions regarding the application procedure and other relevant information.

You will also receive an invitation for a mandatory pre-departure info session, where we will explain all the procedures to follow.

During the pre-departure sessions, we will ask all the students to inform us if they wish to be brought in contact with other students going on exchange to the same university. After the sessions, all students who said yes, will receive an email with the email addresses of the other interested students.

The late applications will be possible after the results of the first rounds of the Outside and Inside Europe Selection have been published. That will only be possible for the left-over places and if the deadlines of our partners have not passed yet. For a list of available universities, send an email to exchangelaw@rug.nl. 

The late applications are usually open from mid-March until 30 April at the latest.

If your provisional nomination was due to not having enough ECTS or missing a first-year course, we will check this at the end of the academic year and contact you, if you didn’t meet the requirements. In that case, your exchange will be cancelled.

If your provisional nomination was due to having a B2 level of a language of instruction, upload a proof of C1 level in MO under “other documents” and send an email to exchangelaw rug.nl.

Go to the tab “Recognition of courses”, then choose your study programme (LLB & LLM or Dutch programmes). Fill in the online form for the Board of Examiners according to the instructions given during the info session. Read more about how to fill in the form in the BROCHURE in Mobility Online.

If the majority of your travel to the host university is done in a sustainable matter (bus, train, carpool), you may be eligible for the top-up. Log into MO and read the information about the Green Travel top-up before generating your Grant Agreement. Fill in the questionnaire and let us know if you wish to apply for the top-up. Erasmus students would have to upload a Declaration of honour before the mobility.

Log into MO and fill in the additional information for the GA. After we have calculated your grant based on the dates you entered in MO, download the generated document, sign it and send to exchangelaw rug.nl for a counter-signature. Don’t forget to upload the GA signed by all parties in MO.

Please enter the information about your health insurance that will cover the duration and location of your Exchange.

Send an email to exchangelaw rug.nl with the correct dates. We will adjust adjust them for you in MO and recalculate your GA. You will then have to generate a new GA in MO.

The reason why your LA is incomplete is mentioned in the email you received. Upload the missing documents and/or correct your LA in MO. Then click on “Enter confirmation” to resubmit your LA for reevaluation.

This is really up to you. If you wish to have the grade from this language course on your diploma, you will have to officially add it to your LA and, therefore, also request an official approval of the BoE for it. Remember that they would only approve a language course as extra-curricular, hence, above the required minimum ECTS. If you do not want to have this grade transferred to your RUG diploma, you don’t have to add it to your LA.

Log into MO and go to “Complete courses for the Learning Agreement”. Add each course separately as explained during the info session. If you have any questions regarding adding the courses, please read the BROCHURE in Mobility Online.

Please remember to have between 30 and 40 ECTS worth of courses per semester. Do not forget to upload a valid Course Approval from the BoE in MO afterwards.

If you completed all pre-departure formalities at least 6 weeks before the start of your exchange, you will receive the first instalment of your grant between 4 and 2 weeks before departure.

This sometimes happens with the partners outside of Europe. They prefer to sign only one LA instead of LA Before mobility and then another one During (with possible changes). In that case, please make sure that you have at least the signed GA uploaded in MO before the deadline and arrange for the signature on the LA as soon as possible. Unfortunately, this means that you will not receive the first instalment of your grant until both documents are dully signed and uploaded in MO.

The reason why your Before Mobility documents are incomplete is mentioned in the email you received. Upload the missing documents and/or correct them in MO. Then click on “Enter confirmation” to resubmit your documents for reevaluation.

If you are a native speaker of the language of instruction, you are exempt from this requirement. Please check if you ticked the box "mother tongue" in MO. In that case, you can simply skip these steps in MO.

We do not require our students to submit a certificate of arrival.

You would, however, need a signed LA After mobility (or a Statement of Host) when your exchange has ended. In that document, your host university would confirm the exact start and end date of your exchange.

Log into MO and complete the step in the During Mobility phase “Review current mobility details”. Indicate if that you have changes to the LA. Then follow the next steps in MO. If a course you wish to add to your LA has not yet been approved by the BoE, you need to request a new Course Approval including all the courses you will enroll into.

Remember that you have only 4 weeks from the beginning of your exchange to make changes to your LA. All changes to the LA have to be approved by us and the host university (adding, deleting or replacing a course). You are not allowed to deviate from the signed LA. In case there are any discrepancies between the LA and the courses you actually follow, you will be declared in breach of the GA and will have to pay back the grant. 

You can make changes to your LA only in the During Mobility phase, within the first 4 weeks from the beginning of your exchange. It is possible that you are still in the financial section in MO. You will only move forward after having received the first instalment of your grant.

Log into MO and complete the step in the During Mobility phase “Review current mobility details”. Then indicate that your mobility dates have changed and enter the new dates. They will be sent to the Exchange Officer for approval.

Not all universities receive a notification that your LA is available in EWP. Please contact your Incoming Exchange officer and remind them that your LA awaits their signature in EWP.

Whether you may extend your exchange to the Spring semester depends on the agreement we have with your host university and on how many students we already sent to that university this year. Please check this with the Exchange Officer.

Please consider the following before making the final decision

• This extension will cause a study delay. Meaning that you will not be able to graduate this academic year. The courses from the LLB last semester of third year are mandatory and cannot be replaced with other courses.
• Talk to the study advisers. They will be able to advise you best on the possibilities available to you in case of a study delay.
• The maximum limit of the grant will still apply. Meaning that you may not receive more than 5 months’ worth of grant in total. The rest of your stay would have to be financed by yourself.
• You will have to go through the extension procedure in MO and sign a new LA for the second semester. Please request the extension by answering “yes” in the extension chapter in MO.
• You would have to create a new LA with courses worth 30 ECTS. They will still show on your diploma, but as extra-curricular.

The deadline to request an extension is at least 1 month before the official end date of your exchange.

It is possible for you to obtain a fail/pass grade on exchange. However, please know, that these grades would also only show as a pass on your diploma. They would not be converted into a grade at our university. Therefore, in case of the LLB students, they would not count towards your GPA.

If you have a chance to obtain a grade instead, this might be more beneficial to you.

Log into MO and follow the next steps in order to successfully finalise your exchange.

Erasmus students: please confirm the final mobility dates first.

Download the LA After (or the Statement of Host) proving the dates of your exchange and upload it with the signature of your host university. A signature of your home university is not required. Please remember that the courses on your LA After Mobility have to match with the Transcript of Records. If there are discrepancies, the whole period abroad may not be recognised and you would have to pay back the grant already received.

The next step will be filling in a digital student report form and uploading a student experience report of approximately 2-3 pages.

You have 4 weeks from the end date of your exchange to upload the Learning Agreement After mobility (or the Statement of Host university) and your study report.

Only when all these formalities are completed, we are allowed to process your Transcript of Records, which we need to receive directly from your host university. This can be done after the deadline.  

I refer you to the brochure in MO for all the details regarding the After Mobility formalities.

The LA After serves as a proof of the exact dates of your exchange and the courses you took. The grades are not necessary for this document. Therefore, your host university may sign it without them. We will get the exact grades from the Transcript of Records, which can be sent to us after the 4-week deadline. 

Alternatively, please use the Statement of Host.

No, our signature is not mandatory on this document. You may upload it in MO just with the signature of the host university.

From the point of view of the grant, if you took all the exams for the courses on your LA, there will be no negative consequences. However, you would still have to obtain at least 15 ECTS worth of courses. Regarding the LLB students who need to pass the minimum of 30 ECTS, you would have to contact the BoE and the study advisers and ask if they would allow you to make up for the missing credits otherwise.

All your grades will be transferred and converted to your RUG diploma according to the conversion tables known only to the BoE. These tables are not made public, as the conversion might slightly change per year. However, please know that a pass will always be converted to a pass (regardless of the passing threshold at the host university) and the highest grade to a highest grade. 

If you received only a pass/fail grade, it will also be converted into a pass on your diploma. Meaning that it will not count towards your GPA. Otherwise, your grades will be converted into proper grades within the Dutch grading system. 

I have made a note on your account about you willing to graduate directly after the exchange. This will expedite the process. However, the speed of processing your grades depends greatly on you as well.  Please remember, that we will only process your Transcript when you have completed the After Mobility formalities and we have received your Transcript directly from the host university. Transcript sent by you, does not count. 

This process takes usually 4 weeks from the moment when we have received your Transcript from your host university. Please note that your Transcript will only be sent for processing once you have finalised the After Mobility formalities.

If the Transcript from exchange and your LA don’t match, you are in breach of the Grant Agreement and will have to pay back the grant. You will receive an invoice from the Mobility and Scholarship Desk of our university.

Please know, that we may not accept a Transcript from a student. It has to be sent to us directly by the host university. Ask your host university to send your Transcript directly to exchangelaw rug.nl

You received a link to a short online assessment form from the Erasmus Agency per email on the last day of your mobility. It is a questionnaire about your experience with both home and host university. Please fill in this report, as without it, you will not receive the second installment of your grant.

Please DO NOT click on "Abort exchange" as this would cancel your whole mobility and reverse the grant. You have finalised everything in MO, therefore, you do not have to take any more steps there. I will close your application shortly.