Studies structure in Belgium

Higher education in Belgium is organized by the two main communities:

1. The Flemish Community
2. The French Community

Admission to universities and colleges

In Belgium anybody with a qualifying diploma of secondary education is free to enroll at any institute of higher education of their choosing. The 4 major exceptions to this rule are those wanting to pursue a degree in:

• Medicine/Dentistry Prospective medicine or dentistry students must take an entrance exam organized by the government. This exam was introduced in the 1990s to control the influx of students. This nowadays is only held in Flanders, not anymore in all French Community Universities.
• Arts Entrance exams to arts programs, which are mainly of a practical nature, are organized by the colleges individually.
• Engineering Sciences Leading to the degree of Master of Science (Dutch: Burgerlijk ingenieur, French: Ingénieur Civil), these faculties had a long standing tradition of requiring an entrance exam (mainly focused on mathematics); the exam has now been abolished in the Flemish Community but is still organized in the French Community. Considered to be among the most difficult engineering studies in the world.
• Management Sciences Leading to a Master after Master degree or a Master in Business Administration degree, these management schools organise admission tests that focus on individual motivation and preknowledge of a specialised domain. E.g. The Master in Financial Management programme at Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School requires prior knowledge on corporate finance and management control topics.

Cost of higher education

The registration fee for any university or college is fixed by the government, and indexed yearly. Depending on whether the student is eligible and applies for financial aid, there are 3 prices:

1. Bursary-student - a student who is eligible and has applied for financial aid. (registration fee is between €80 and €100).
2. Almost-bursary student- a student who is not eligible for financial aid, but has a family income below €1.286,09. (registration fee between €333,60 and €378,60).
3. Non-bursary student - anyone not eligible for financial aid with an income above €1.286,09. (registration fee between €500,40 and €567,80).

The financial aid awarded by the community governments depends on the income of the student's family, and other familial circumstances, but is never more than approximately €3300 per year.

Bologna changes

Prior to the adoption of the Bologna process, the Belgian higher education system had the following degrees:

• Graduate degree (Dutch: gegradueerde, French: gradué): typically a 3 year long program at a college, with a vocational character, also called short type or one cycle higher education.
• Candidate degree (Dutch: kandidaat, French: candidat): the first 2 years at a University (3 years for medicine studies) or at some colleges offering long type or two cycle programs. This diploma had no finality than to give access to the licentiate studies.
• Licentiate diploma (Dutch: licentiaat, French: licencié): The second cycle, leading to a degree after typically 2 years (3 years for civil engineers or lawyers, 4 years for medicine).
• DEA (French:diplôme d'études approfondies) this is a 2 years postgraduate degree exists in the French speaker universities, the admission to this degree requires a Licentiate. the DEA is equivalent to the Master's degree in the American-English systems.

Since the adoption of the Bologna process in most European countries, the higher education system in Belgium follows the Bachelor/Master system:

1. Bachelor's degree which takes 3 years. Distinction is to be made between the professional bachelor, which replaces the former graduate degree and which has a finality, and the academic bachelor which replaces the candidate degree and which gives access to master's studies.
2. Master's degree takes 1 or 2 years.In Belgium, both Universities and Colleges are allowed to teach Bachelor and Master classes, either professional or academical.

After obtaining a Master's degree, talented students can pursue research projects leading to a doctorate degree. PhD's are only awarded by Universities.

Source: wikipedia.org