Studying Engineering at UBC on exchange (CIE)

Guidelines for prospective CIE students

1. Students must be nominated by their home universities to study at UBC on exchange in the CIE program. Please see the list below for universities that have a CIE Engineering-specific agreement.
2. CIE students must take the majority of their courses in the Faculty of Applied Science, typically in the following engineering programs at UBC Vancouver campus:
   • Electrical and Computer Engineering (Computer Science is not housed in the Faculty of Applied Science)
   • Chemical and Biological Engineering
   • Civil Engineering
   • Materials Engineering
   • Mechanical Engineering
3. Engineering programs at the UBC Okanagan campus that are open to CIE students:
   • Electrical Engineering
   • Civil Engineering
   • Mechanical Engineering
4. CIE students may request a maximum of two courses per term outside the Faculty of Applied Science. Registration is dependent on course availability. Due to limited capacity in Computer Science, Economics, Commerce, and Physics courses, requests for those courses normally cannot be accommodated.
5. Engineering CIE Term 1 only exchange students at UBC Vancouver campus are recommended to look for off-campus housing because of the low chance of getting into a UBC residence.

Registration process

1. CIE students submit final course requests to Go Global following the instructions provided after being admitted to the program.

2. Go Global reviews all the course requests and forwards them to respective departments in the Faculty of Applied Science.

3. Individual departments process registration for CIE students in August for students accepted to UBC before June or in November for those accepted in October. It is important to note that specific engineering course registration is not guaranteed and is dependent on the CIE student meeting course prerequisites (if any) and space availability.  

4. The Go Global office manages or coordinates registration for non-engineering courses taking into consideration prerequisites, restrictions, and capacity. Registration in other faculty courses will be done after engineering course registration is complete.

Universities with CIE engineering-specific agreements

Asia

• City University of Hong Kong
• Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
• Nanyang Technological University
• National University of Singapore
• The University of Hong Kong

Australia

• Monash University         
• University of Melbourne         
• University of Queensland         
• University of New South Wales         
• University of Sydney

Europe   

• Delft University of Technology    
• École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne
• ETH Zurich
• Technical University of Denmark
• Technical University of Munich
• University of Glasgow

 Application, dates and practical info

• Apply to UBC on exchange
• Key dates for applying to UBC on exchange
• Costs for coming to UBC on exchange
• English language requirements for coming to UBC on exchange
• Register for courses at UBC on exchange
• Prepare to come to UBC on exchange

Visiting, Unclassified, and Access Studies students are part of Non-Degree Studies, which is for students taking UBC courses without pursuing a UBC degree.

See Non-Degree Studies information for more details and to find out how to apply.

If you have questions

Contact the Go Global Inbound Exchange Team at go.global@ubc.ca or call 604 822 0942 for email inquiries or drop-in advising. 

Please include the following in your email: 

• Your student number in the subject line
• Your full name in the body of the email
• Whether you're an incoming or outgoing exchange student in the body of the email