failed Parcoursup, many French people go to study in Belgium

More and more young French people are going to study in Brussels. Their number has jumped by more than 25% in five years. And not only, as was the case before, in the medical fields. A rush towards the flat country which begins to cringe.

To understand this phenomenon of attraction exerted by the Belgian capital, we went to meet young French people on the campus of ULB, the French-speaking university of Brussels. At lunchtime, on a sunny day when clusters of students, sandwiches in hand, take the air between two lessons, it does not take us long, asking a few questions, to know where to find the French . Building D, 11th floor where we find Charlotte: “In my class, out of about fifty students there are less than ten Belgians, we are almost all French!”

Charlotte, from Nice, is doing a Masters in Journalism at ULB. “I took the competitions in France and I failed them all, she says. I then looked for a place where I would not have to pay thousands of euros and which would take me. In addition, it is a diploma recognized on a European scale… And so I am quite happy to be there. It’s a nice surprise. “ “Here I was given my chance”, summarizes the student expatriate in Belgium who wants to become a journalist on TV.

Building D is also the one where Natan and Zoe study, large drawing boards under their arms. The two French arrived last September.“We do architecture, we are in first year, because necessarily schools in France, it’s complicated to enter. But it’s good in the end, we are happy to be there”, Natan explains.

“Personally, I arrived by default because in France only an elite enter architecture schools: for about 2,500 requests there are only 110 places.”

Nathan, architecture student at ULB

to franceinfo

“Here it is a very good school but which did not choose to do as in France, he continues. They take everyone, and those who drop out, well they drop out because they can’t. But at the end of these studies, we end with a class of roughly the same number of students as in France, except that here everyone was able to access it! “

Neither selectivity nor quotas, except in certain medical fields, a little more expensive education than in French faculties (around 850 euros per year) but with a wider choice of training which also makes it possible to avoid private schools which are often very expensive. expensive … This explains the presence of 5,900 French students on this Brussels campus, or 15% of the workforce. In pharmacy for the first time, there are even more French in the first year than Belgians according to the figures provided by the university.

Many ParcourSup and French Masters fail to study in Brussels, but there are also young people who do not come by default. This is the case of Luana, 22, arrived after a bachelor’s degree and whom we meet in accounting class. The young woman is in master’s degree in cultural management: “As soon as I was accepted in Brussels I said to myself, well, I want to work in the cultural sector, it’s a big city and a European capital.”

“And then there’s the atmosphere, the Belgians are very nice, the rents are very reasonable compared to Paris and there are a lot of roommates, it’s quite easy to settle in Brussels.”

Luana, master’s student in cultural management

to franceinfo

Easy too because you can study there in French and return to France on weekends to see your parents.

The situation is comfortable but it is starting to cause problems for the administration, as Nadine Postiaux, the vice-rector for teaching and quality at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, tells us. She is attached to the free movement of students in Europe, but she believes that this cannot last any longer and she refuses to impose selectivity: “French-speaking Belgium is committed to its policy of free access to the University. We have put certain barriers at certain times, for example in the medicine or veterinary program, but we have a policy, a philosophy, because for us a free access further promotes the social lift that higher education allows. It was our choice and until now it has held. “

But this social lift no longer holds with French students who often arrive in their first year in Belgium after having failed in France. Students who are therefore often older, more mature and who are doing better, points out Nadine Postiaux, than their Belgian comrades who are just 18 years old.

An imbalance that can no longer last also considers Bruno Van Pottelsberghe, the dean of Solvay, the Faculty of Economics and Management of the ULB: “Let ‘s imagine that we triple the number of students, we will have to set up selections or exams, and we will no longer be able to serve our society as we are doing at the present time with the Belgian population who pay their taxes and which makes it possible to finance universities. We therefore have a system which is not sustainable and we must tackle it head-on, either at European level or in Belgium with a different funding system “. And why not make France contribute financially, ask the officials of the Brussels university who recently challenged their government.