Brussels, the new refuge for French students?

In Brussels (Belgium)the French are everywhere in the alleys of the university. Matilda Sides is a student in international relations at the Free University of Brussels (ULB). Graduated with a degree in political science, she had not considered coming to study in Belgium, but was rejected for seven masters in France. “If I had been taken to France, I would surely have gone to France. I really had a very good record, that’s why it was all the more surprising to see so many refusals“, she says.

In five years, the number of French people has increased by 25% at theULB. In the first pharmacy degree, French students have tripled in one year, becoming majority during the last intake. “We tend to consider that access to higher education [est] a form of social elevator, so we accept all students, whatever their level“, says Véronique Cabialsprofessor at the Faculty of Pharmacy of theULB. The system now delights nearly 5,000 French students, out of a total of 36,000 on campus. “If we work, we succeed. In France, it’s not the same“, says a student.