The Government of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation has approved the draft decree amending the decree of 5 March 2020 authorising the organisation of bachelor's and master's degrees in English.
For first- and second-cycle studies, the Government may, on a proposal from ARES, grant Higher Education institutions exemptions from the language of instruction, where the studies in question have an international character stemming from the excellence of the scientific or artistic field, or from their particular nature.
There are currently exemptions from the language of instruction for 2 bachelor's degrees (management engineering and computer science) and 43 master's degrees (for example: civil aerospace engineering, civil construction engineering, civil computer engineering, civil mining engineering and geology, political science, sociology, civil physics engineering, etc.)
This draft aims to grant two additional exemptions, from the 2024-2025 academic year, allowing:
- All the universities concerned to organise the bachelor's degree in law in a trilingual version (French, Dutch, English).
- UCLouvain, ULiège and ULB to also offer the master's degree in European studies in English.
“A course organised in a trilingual version is a first for the Wallonia-Brussels Federation! We all know how important a good command of Dutch and English is for legal careers, not only in Brussels but throughout Belgium. It is also a significant added value for student mobility during their master's degree”, explains the Minister for Higher Education, Françoise Bertieaux.