Belgium wants to put an end to long-term studies and alienates students

Demonstrations have taken place in recent weeks in Belgium to demand the withdrawal of a decree which notably plans to toughen the conditions which allow people to pursue studies at university.

French-speaking students in Brussels and Wallonia are up in arms against what is called “the new Landscape Decree”. Demonstrations have taken place in recent weeks to demand the withdrawal of this decree which toughens the conditions of success to be able to continue studying at university.

The text, passed in 2001, should normally come into full application at the start of the next school year, in September. And according to the FEF, the Federation of French-speaking Students, more than 70,000 students risk being excluded from higher education from the start of the university year, or one in three French-speaking students.

The risk of becoming “unfundable”

With this reform, students will now be obliged to validate all their courses to be able to move on to the next year. Until now, they could be content with only validating the majority of them on the condition of passing the missing exams later. Another tightening, it will now be impossible to spend more than two years in Bac 1, that is to say the first year of university. As for the baccalaureate, the Belgian equivalent of the three-year license, obtaining it is subject to a maximum period of 5 years. In summary, it will no longer be possible to drag on in studies. If these conditions are not met, students then become unfundable, meaning they can no longer enroll in a university.

“It’s a way of being able to reduce the number of students and be able to fight against the extension of studies which is very expensive for the State.” According to Emila Hoxhaj

Emila Hoxhaj, president of the French-speaking Student Federation

at franceinfo

According to Emila Hoxhaj, president of the FEF, 70,000 students, or a third of French-speaking students in Brussels and Wallonia, could thus be deprived of studies from the start of the school year. “We find ourselves in a system which is underfunded, where passing through the years becomes very difficult, where there is growing precariousness, so we disagree with this logic. she explains.

A political issue

The student crisis has now become political. Two parties out of the three that make up the ruling coalition within the government of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, namely the PS and Ecolo, sided with the students. Only the center-right MR maintains its position. And with the elections approaching, the students intend to take advantage of these government cracks to obtain the complete withdrawal of the text.

Next Tuesday, April 16, two texts will be examined and perhaps voted on by the Parliament of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation: first a PS-Ecolo proposal for a one-year moratorium on the application of the new rules, then a measure tabled by the PT, the Belgian labor party, which takes up all the student demands and demands the withdrawal of the text. The students have already promised demonstrations throughout Wallonia that day.