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:

Source: Original png on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Belgium_provinces_regions_striped.png

• 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
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.

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).

The educational provision in Flemish tertiary education is laid down in the Higher education register that contains all the accredited higher education programmes in Flanders. See http://www.highereducation.be for a list of all recognised institutions.

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.

There are five associations in Flanders:

• the K.U.Leuven Association
• the Ghent University Association
• the Antwerp University Association
• the Brussels university association
• the universiteit - hogescholen Limburg association

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.

1. 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.

1. 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:

• Dutch page on the BAMA act of 4 april 2003
• Wikipedia's page on the Flemish act

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.

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.

Source: Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders (NVAO)

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:

1. Assessment frameworks for (initial) accreditation consisting of themes, standards and criteria linked with assessment rules;
2. A description of equivalence in the case of an international accreditation (only applies for Flanders);
3. 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.

Source: Introduction to (initial) accreditation

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:

1. Aims and objectives
2. Curriculum
3. Staff
4. Services
5. Internal quality assurance
6. 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.

Source: Automatic recognition of qualifications

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)

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.

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

1. Wikipage on Belgium
2. Wikipage on the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium
3. Information about Higher Education on Belgium.be
4. The web site for the ministry of Education and Formation
5. “EDUCATION IN FLANDERS - The Flemish educational landscape in a nutshell”, PDF
6. Wikipedia’s page on Belgium Universities and Colleges
7. Higher Education in Flanders Register
8. Study in Flanders
9. Introduction to (initial) accreditation (EN)
10. Accreditation (EN)
11. Accredidation Framework for Flanders (EN)
12. Automatic recognition of qualifications (EN)
13. Joint declaration automatic recognition qualifications December 2005 (PDF) (EN)

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