Welcome to the Virtual Education Wiki ~ Open Education Wiki
Belgium
Partners situated in Belgium:
- AVNet - K.U.Leuven
- EuroPACE
- Audiovisual Technologies, Informatics and Telecommunications bvba (ATiT)
Note: One of the universities in Belgium is K.U.Leuven.
Country in a nutshell
Belgium is a federal state in Europe with a constitutional monarchy, founded in 1830. Its capital is Brussels and it has a population of 10 511 382 people in a total area of 30 528 km². Belgium is a double federation of:
- 3 Communities which are responsible for the person-related issues such as education, welfare, public health and culture:
- the Dutch-speaking Community / Vlaamse Gemeenschap: Government, Ministry and Parliamant
- the French-speaking Community / Communauté Française: Government, Ministry and Parliamant
- the German-speaking Community / Deutschsprachige Gemeinschaft: Ministry and Parliament
- 3 Regions which are responsible for the territorial issues such as economy, infrastructure, agriculture, environment and employment
- the Flemish Region
- the Walloon Region
- the Brussels-Capital Region (officially bilingual)
- There are four language areas:
- the Dutch area: the provinces in Flanders: Antwerp, Limburg, Flemish Brabant, West Flanders, East Flanders
- the French area: the provinces in Wallonia: Hainaut, Walloon Brabant, Namur, Luxembourg, Liège
- the German area: the 9 municipalities of the “East Cantons” / Eupen-Malmedy
- the bilingual area in Brussels-Capital with 19 municipalities
Country education policy
The Belgian Constitution stipulates that everyone has the right to education and therefore established compulsory education. Belgium also provides that access to education is free of charge up to the end of secondary education.
Education policy in currently in the hands of the 3 communities.
Two groups organise the educational structure: the public sector (the communes, provinces and communities) and the private sector. In the public sector there are 3 educational networks:
- community schools (neutral on religious, philosophical or ideological convictions)
- subsidised publicly run schools (organized by communes and provinces)
- subsidised privately run schools: denominational schools and schools which are not affiliated to a particular religion: the Freinet schools, Montessori schools or Steiner schools, which adopt particular educational methods and are also known as ‘method schools’.
Education that is organised for and by the government (community education and municipal and provincial education) is known as publicly run education. Recognised education organised on private initiative is called privately run education.
A small number of schools in Flanders are not recognised by the government. These are the so-called private schools, which are not financed or subsidised by the government.
Country education system
| A detailed chart of the educational levels in Flanders | A simplified chart of the educational levels in Flanders |
|---|---|
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| Adapted from a PDF "The Flemish educational landscape in a nutshell" | Adapted from a PDF "Chart Flemish Education" |
Higher education
Higher education in Belgium is organized by the two main communities, the Flemish Community and the French Community. German speakers typically enroll in institutions in the French Community or in Germany.
HEI's of the Flemish Community
In tertiary education / higher education, the academic year starts between 1 September and 1 October. The academic year ends on the day before the start of the next academic year.
The student enrols in one or more autonomous course components. He/she chooses for the already existing educational programme of 60 credits per academic year or for a flexible combination of course components (= less than 60 credits per academic year).
An association is inter-institutional co-operation between one university and one or more colleges of higher education. Associations facilitate improved interaction between education and research in the academic bachelor courses and the master courses provided at colleges of higher education.
Continuing education in Flanders
1. Part-time education in the arts (DKO)
- Part-time education in the arts is aimed at the artistic education of children and adults and, in doing so, at providing a contribution to their personal development.
2. Adult education
- In Flanders there are several publicly funded education, training and developmental provision schemes for adults. Within part-time adult education, 3 different actors can be distinguished:
- a continuing education (OSP): with more than 250,000 course participants, continuing education is the most important pillar in adult education. Continuing education is provided in centres for adult education which are recognised and funded by the authorities.
- b supervised individual study (BIS): BIS has discontinued. It is however published in our research list.
- c adult basic education: the 29 centres for basic adult education try to provide a broad and varied range of basic education programmes: languages, mathematics, social orientation, ICT, introduction in French and English and stimulation and student counselling activities.
- In contrast with continuing education and BIS, courses in basic education are free of charge.
3. Lifelong learning
- On 31 March 2003, the Training and Alignment Information Service /Dienst Informatie Vorming en Afstemming (DIVA) was launched. DIVA co-ordinates the educational provision for adults in Flanders. DIVA facilitates the co-operation between the policy fields Education and Training, Employment, Culture and Economy. DIVA’s partners are the educational networks, Flemish Employment and Vocational Training Agency (VDAB), Flemish Institute for the Self-Employed (VIZO) and Support Centre for Socio-cultural Work (Socius). These partners represent respectively adult education (including further higher education, OSP, basic education, BIS and DKO), the training courses set up by VDAB, by Syntra and socio-cultural adult work. An awareness-raising campaign was launched: http://www.wordwatjewil.be (“Become what you want”)
Higher Education in Flanders and Wallonia
Structure based on: Wikipedia's page on list of universities in Belgium.
In Flanders distinctions are made between:
- Universities: abbreviated as FL Uni
- (University) Colleges (“Hogescholen”): abbreviated as FL Col
- Registered institutes of higher education: abbreviated as RHEI
The Colleges, which issue professional bachelor and master degrees, are recognised by the Flemish government. Finally, the Flemish government has recognised a number of "registered" institutes of higher education, which mostly issue specialised degrees or provide education mainly in a foreign language. A list of all recognised universities, colleges, and institutes is maintained by the Flemish government in the Higher Education in Flanders Register.
In Wallonia distinctions are made between:
- Universities: abbreviate as WL Uni
- Colleges (“Hautes Ecoles”): abbreviate as WL Col
- Arts colleges: abbreviate as WL A.Col
- Institutes of architecture: abbreviate as WL I.Arch
A list of all recognised institutes can be found in the list of all recognised institutes is maintained in the Annuaire de l'enseignement supérieur
HEIs of the German-speaking Community are indicated as a "DG" in the first column.
| FL uni | English name / web pages | Original language / web pages' | City | students |
| FL Uni | University of Antwerp | Universiteit Antwerpen | Antwerp | 11,000 |
| FL Uni | Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel | Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel | Brussels | 7,000 (full-time) |
| FL Uni | Vrije Universiteit Brussel | Vrije Universiteit Brussel | Brussels | 9,157 |
| FL Uni | Ghent University | Universiteit Gent | Ghent | 30,000 |
| FL Uni | Hasselt University | Universiteit Hasselt | Hasselt | 2,219 |
| FL Uni | Katholieke Universiteit Leuven | Katholieke Universiteit Leuven | Leuven | 30,442 (2005-06) |
| FL Col | Antwerp Maritime Academy | Hogere Zeevaartschool | Antwerp | |
| FL Col | Artesis (Hogeschool Antwerpen) | Antwerp | ||
| FL Col | Karel de Grote-Hogeschool Antwerp | Karel de Grote-Hogeschool | Antwerp | 7,250 |
| FL Col | Lessius | Lessius | Antwerp | |
| FL Col | Plantijn-Hogeschool (van de Provincie Antwerpen) | Antwerp | ||
| FL Col | Katholieke Hogeschool Brugge-Oostende | Bruges-Ostend | ||
| FL Col | Erasmushogeschool Brussel | Erasmushogeschool Brussel | Brussels | |
| FL Col | Sint-Lukas Brussels University College of Art and Design | Hogeschool Sint-Lukas Brussel | Brussels | Sint-750 |
| FL Col | University College for Sciences and Arts | Hogeschool voor Wetenschap en Kunst | Brussels | |
| FL Col | KH Kempen University College | Katholieke Hogeschool Kempen | Geel | 6,200 |
| FL Col | University College Arteveldehogeschool | Arteveldehogeschool | Ghent | 8,600 |
| FL Col | University College Ghent | Hogeschool Gent | Ghent | 15,000 |
| FL Col | Catholic University College Ghent | Katholieke Hogeschool Sint-Lieven | Ghent | 5,000 |
| FL Col | Katholieke Hogeschool Limburg] | Katholieke Hogeschool Limburg | Hasselt | 5,500 |
| FL Col | PHL University College | Provinciale Hogeschool Limburg | Hasselt | |
| FL Col | XIOS University College Limburg | XIOS Hogeschool Limburg | Hasselt | 3,000 |
| FL Col | University College West Flanders (HOWEST) | Hogeschool West-Vlaanderen | Kortrijk-Bruges-Ostend | 4,500 |
| FL Col | Katholieke Hogeschool Zuid-West-Vlaanderen | Katholieke Hogeschool Zuid-West-Vlaanderen | Kortrijk | 7,000 |
| FL Col | Group T-International University College Leuven | Groep T - Internationale Hogeschool Leuven | Leuven | 5,000 |
| FL Col | Katholieke Hogeschool Leuven | Leuven | ||
| FL Col | Mechelen University College | Katholieke Hogeschool Mechelen | Mechelen | 4,400 |
| FL RHEI | Flanders Business School | Antwerp | ||
| FL RHEI | Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp | Instituut voor Tropische Geneeskunde | Antwerp | 250 |
| FL RHEI | College of Europe | Bruges/Warsaw | 300 in Bruges | |
| FL RHEI | Faculteit voor Protestantse Godgeleerdheid Brussel | Brussels | ||
| FL RHEI | Vesalius College | Brussels | ||
| FL RHEI | Evangelical Theological Faculty (ETF) | Evangelische Theologische Faculteit | Heverlee | 200 full-time and part-time |
| FL RHEI | Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School | Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School | Leuven-Ghent | |
| FL RHEI | Continental Theological Seminary | Sint-Pieters-Leeuw | ||
| WL Uni | Université Libre de Bruxelles | Université Libre de Bruxelles | Brussels | 20,241 (2006-07) |
| WL Uni | University of Liège | Université de Liège | Liège | 7,000 |
| WL Uni | Université catholique de Louvain | Université catholique de Louvain | Louvain-la-Neuve | 21,000 |
| WL Uni | Faculté Universitaire des Sciences Agronomiques de Gembloux | Faculté Universitaire des Sciences Agronomiques de Gembloux | Gembloux | 1,000 |
| WL Uni | Faculté Polytechnique de Mons | Faculté Polytechnique de Mons | Mons | 1,200 |
| WL Uni | Université de Mons-Hainaut | Mons | 3,500 | |
| WL Col | Haute Ecole Francisco Ferrer de la Ville de Bruxelles | |||
| WL Col | Haute Ecole Galilee | |||
| WL Col | Haute Ecole de la Communaute Francaise Paul-Henri Spaak | |||
| WL Col | Haute Ecole Lucia de Brouckere | |||
| WL Col | Haute Ecole "groupe I.C.H.E.C. - I.S.C. Saint-Louis - I.S.F.S.C." | |||
| WL Col | Haute Ecole de Bruxelles | |||
| WL Col | Haute Ecole libre de bruxelles ilya prigogine - H.E.L.B. | |||
| WL Col | Haute Ecole Leonard de Vinci | |||
| WL Col | Haute Ecole E.P.H.E.C | |||
| WL Col | Haute Ecole de la Ville de Liege | |||
| WL Col | Haute Ecole Mosane D’enseignement Superieur - Hemes | |||
| WL Col | Haute Ecole I.S.E.L.L. | |||
| WL Col | Haute Ecole Charlemagne | |||
| FL Col | Haute École de la Province de Liège | |||
| WL Col | Haute Ecole d’Enseignement Superieur de Namur - I.E.S.N. | |||
| WL Col | Haute Ecole de la Province de Namur | |||
| WL Col | Haute Ecole Albert Jacquard | |||
| WL Col | Haute Ecole Namuroise Catholique - H.E.N.A.C. | |||
| WL Col | Haute Ecole Provinciale de Charleroi - Universite du Travail | |||
| WL Col | Haute Ecole Catholique Charleroi - Europe | |||
| WL Col | Haute Ecole de la Communaute Francaise du Luxembourg Schuman | |||
| WL Col | Haute Ecole Provinciale Mons - Borinage - Centre | |||
| WL Col | Haute Ecole Roi Baudouin | |||
| WL Col | Haute Ecole de la Communaute Francaise du Hainaut | |||
| WL Col | Haute Ecole Libre du Hainaut Occidental - H.E.L.H.O. | |||
| WL Col | Haute Ecole Provinciale du Hainaut Occidental - H.E.P.H.O. | |||
| WL Col | Haute Ecole Blaise Pascal - H.E.B.P. | |||
| WL A.Col | Institut National Superieur des Arts du Spectacle et Techniques de Diffusion | |||
| WL A.Col | Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts de la ville de Bruxelles | Brussels | ||
| WL A.Col | Ecole Nationale Superieure des Arts Visuels de la Cambre | |||
| WL A.Col | Conservatoire Royal de Musique de Bruxelles | |||
| WL A.Col | Institut Saint-Luc | Brussels / Liège / Tournai | ||
| WL A.Col | Institut Superieur Libre des Arts Plastiques Ecole de Recherche Graphique - E.R.G. | |||
| WL A.Col | Ecole Superieure des Arts du Cirque | |||
| WL A.Col | Etablissement Communal d’Enseignement Superieur Artistique "le 75" | |||
| WL A.Col | Institut des Arts de Diffusion | |||
| WL A.Col | Ecole Superieure des Arts de la Ville de Liege | |||
| WL A.Col | Conservatoire Royal de Musique de Liege | |||
| WL A.Col | Ecole Superieure des Arts Saint-Luc | |||
| WL A.Col | Institut Superieur de Musique Et de Pedagogie - I.M.E.P. | |||
| WL A.Col | Conservatoire Royal de Musique de Mons | |||
| WL A.Col | Ecole Superieure des Arts Plastiques Et Visuels de la Communaute Francaise - Carre des Arts | |||
| WL A.Col | Academie des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Tournai | |||
| WL A.Col | Ecole Superieure des Arts Institut Saint-Luc | |||
| WL I.Arch | Institut Supérieur d’Architecture Intercommunal - I.S.A.I. | |||
| WL I.Arch | Institut Supérieur d’Architecture de la Communaute Francaise I.S.A. - La Cambre | |||
| WL I.Arch | Institut Supérieur d’Architecture Saint-Luc Bruxelles | |||
| WL I.Arch | Institut Supérieur d’Architecture Saint-Luc Wallonie | |||
| DG Col | Autonome Hochschule in der Deutschsprachigen Gemeinschaft | Eupen |
Higher education reform
The Bologna Process
Flanders The higher education reform Act of 4 April 2003 thoroughly changed tertiary education in Flanders. This act is officially called "Decreet van 4 april 2003 betreffende de herstructurering van het hoger onderwijs in Vlaanderen" and unofficially also referred to as the BAMA act or "BAMA-decreet". The Act contains three major lines of action: the introduction of the bachelor-master structure, interinstitutional co-operation between a university and one or more colleges of higher education and the accreditation of training programmes.
- The colleges of higher education and universities are gradually introducing the bachelor-master structure from the 2004 - 2005 academic year onwards.
- Higher professional education only offers bachelor courses and is only provided at colleges
of higher education.
- Academic education consists of bachelor courses and master courses. Academic education is provided at universities and at colleges of higher education operating within the framework of an association.
Related web pages:
Wallonia
Also in the French Community the bachelor-master structure ("baccalauréat-maîtrise" structure)was introduced in recent years.
The French Community distinguishes between universities (offering bachelor, master and doctoral courses) and higher education outside the universities (offering only bachelor courses): colleges (Hautes Ecoles), arts colleges, and institutes of architecture.
Administration and finance
Quality assurance
- Higher education institutions in Flanders operate a full fledged credit system based on ECTS (European Credit Transfer System).
- The Higher Education Register is a legal register that contains all the accredited higher education programmes in Flanders, Belgium. Only these accredited programmes are recognised by the relevant education authorities. Accredited degree programmes meet, according to the : NVAO (the independent accreditation organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders, Belgium) predefined quality standards.
- Source: Short Introduction
Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders
- NVAO (in Dutch: Nederlands-Vlaamse Accreditatieorganisatie) is the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders. The organisation was established by international treaty and it ensures the quality of higher education in the Netherlands and Flanders.
Mission
- The Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders (NVAO) independently ensures the quality of higher education in the Netherlands and Flanders by assessing and accrediting programmes, and contributes to furthering this quality.
- In addition, NVAO contributes to raising quality awareness within higher education and advancing the position of higher education in the Netherlands and Flanders in the national and international context.
Introduction to (initial) accreditation
- The accreditation procedures of the Netherlands and Flanders relate to both accreditation and initial accreditation. Accreditation concerns programmes that are already offered by institutions and which are registered in the official register of recognised programmes in the Netherlands (i.e. CROHO) and in Flanders (i.e. Higher Education Register). Initial accreditation concerns programmes that are not yet offered and/or which are not registered in the official registers of recognised programmes mentioned above.
- The Dutch and Flemish (initial) accreditation systems contain the following elements:
- Assessment frameworks for (initial) accreditation consisting of themes, standards and criteria linked with assessment rules;
- A description of equivalence in the case of an international accreditation (only applies for Flanders);
- Protocols for research master and extended master's programmes (only applies for the Netherlands).
Accreditation
- The starting point for accreditation is the accreditation framework. The required procedure, the quality standards and the assessment rules are laid down in this framework.
- Accreditation concerns programmes that already award (nationally) recognised degrees. These programmes are included in the official register of the relevant country (i.e. the CROHO in the Netherlands or the Higher Education Register in Flanders). Accreditation relates to the assessment of the quality of the programme and focuses on learning outcomes.
- The accreditation procedure consists of three consecutive steps: the self evaluation, the external assessment and the accreditation. You can read more information on these three steps on the NVAO site.
Accredidation Framework for Flanders
- You can download a PDF for this section: Accredidation Framework for Flanders, (PDF - 23 pages):
- Chapter 2 describes the framework for the assessment of programmes in higher education based on an external assessment report.
- To assess whether a higher education programme can be granted accreditation, the programme is assessed according to six themes (see chapter 2.1). These themes are:
- Aims and objectives
- Curriculum
- Staff
- Services
- Internal quality assurance
- Results
- These themes are assessed according to standards and corresponding criteria, with a differentiation as to level (bachelor or master) and orientation (professional or academic) of the programme.
- Source: Accredidation Framework for Flanders, (PDF - 23 pages)
Automatic recognition of qualifications
- In the period 2005-2006, organisations responsible for recognition of foreign qualifications and the accreditation organisations from the Netherlands and Flanders, Norway, Austria, Poland and Switzerland signed the Joint Declaration concerning the automatic recognition of qualifications.
- This cooperation between accreditation organisations and recognition bodies is considered to be the start of the development of a cross-border qualifications area.
- This Joint Declaration was a major advance towards NVAO’s eventual aim, i.e. the realisation of a European Qualifications Area where qualifications from accredited programmes and institutions are automatically recognised.
Country's HEIs in the information society
Towards the information society
Information society strategy
Virtual initiatives in HE
In the following table we would like to highlight three initiatives that we consider to be important virtual learning opportunities in Belgium
Table 1
| Nr | Name | Institution | City | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | BIS Online | Begeleid Individueel Studeren (BIS) – Ministry of Education | Brussels | Distance learning. Inactive now. |
| 2. | Open Universiteit Vlaanderen (subdivision of OUNL) | Coördinatiebureau Vlaanderen in the University of Ghent / OUNL | Ghent | Distance learning |
| 3. | Toledo | the K.U.Leuven Association | Leuven | VLE, LMS, Student manual (PDF) |
| 4. | Virtual Campus of ULg | University of Liège | Liège | e-learning portal (e-Agora), LMS (WebCT – Blackboard?) with e-courses |
Furthermore, it is also interesting to see how a 'traditional university' as the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (K.U.Leuven) in Belgium progressively organizes its educational support from a multicampus perspective.
A paper on state-of-the-art of e-learning in Belgium is available at http://www.easy-elearning.net/downloads/e-learning_in_Belgium.pdf
Related wiki pages
For more examples visit this page: Belgium Research or view our WORD document with detailed information for most of our examples.
Furthermore, for corporate e-learning there's the Belgian network for Open & Distance learning (BE-ODL).
References
- Wikipage on Belgium
- Wikipage on the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium
- Information about Higher Education on Belgium.be
- The web site for the ministry of Education and Formation
- “EDUCATION IN FLANDERS - The Flemish educational landscape in a nutshell”, PDF
- Wikipedia’s page on Belgium Universities and Colleges
- Higher Education in Flanders Register
- Study in Flanders
- Introduction to (initial) accreditation (EN)
- Accreditation (EN)
- Accredidation Framework for Flanders (EN)
- Automatic recognition of qualifications (EN)
- Joint declaration automatic recognition qualifications December 2005 (PDF) (EN)