Study in Belgium

Belgium is a very captivating country! Located on the border of the Latin and Germanic worlds, its territory has been the fief, through the centuries, of Germanic, Spanish, Austrian, French and Dutch powers before it was recognised as the independent state of Belgium in 1830.

A product of history, this country is a true cultural crossroads, gifted with a tradition of opening up, within which live citizens whose mother tongue is French, Dutch and German. Given these conditions, is it any wonder that Brussels, the capital of Belgium, was chosen as capital of Europe? Today it is the extraordinary place where the paths of representatives of the twenty-five nations, together forming the European Union, cross.

In order to cater for its multiculturalism as well as possible, Belgium afforded itself a federal structure in 1980 that at once corresponds with its geography through the creation of three regions (Brussels, Wallonia and Flanders) and with the native languages spoken by its citizens through the creation of three communities (the French Community, also known as Wallonia-Brussels, the Flemish Community and the German Community). Among others, the Communities are responsible for education and fundamental research while applied research is the domain of the Regions.

Belgium, open on the world, benefits from a culture with an originality out of the ordinary: from fine arts with Magritte, Delvaux, Rops, etc., to literature with Simenon; from jazz with Toots Thielemans to comics with Hergé; from cinema with the Dardenne brothers to classical music with César Franck and Eugène Ysaye, and to songs with Jacques Brel, etc.

Students

Belgium's two higher education systems have made significant efforts to open up to foreign students, and have had some success in doing so. However, the international student population is not at all heterogeneous - it is 59% French - and the languages of instruction are still principally French and Flemish. Teaching staff mobility, although apparently higher than the European average, does not seem to have changed significantly as a result of the Bologna process.

Belgium's foreign student population, although it remains relatively high at 6.3%, has fallen significantly in recent years. In 1999, 10.3% of student in Belgium were foreign. The declining proportion of foreign students is due both to the (modest) expansion of the Belgian HE system, and also to an absolute fall in numbers, from 36,000 in 1999 to 25,000 in 2006. Belgium's foreign degree student population is not heterogeneous. Almost 59% of international students in Belgium are from France, with 12% coming from the Netherlands and 7% from Luxembourg.