Belgium

Belgium is one of the founding members of the European union. It is also chosen to be the headquarters of different European institutions. The capital city Brussels is where the European commission, the Council of the European union and partially the European parliament is situated. The country has a population of over 11 million with different languages and cultures and hosts 41,000 international students. The people are mainly from three different communities: French speaking community, German speaking community and Flemish community. Belgium is among the founding members of NATO, The Eurozone, Benelux, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Belgium also hosts some of the most famous music festivals in the world like Tomorrowland, Rock Werchter, Dour, Ronquières.

Studying in Belgium

Trilingual education system with affordable tuition fees and diverse research programs are the highlights of studying in Belgium. In addition to Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctorate degrees, Belgium offers long and short term vocational and art programs. Education in Belgium is regulated separately by each region providing them the autonomy to decide on their own rules regarding admissions, tuition fees and language of instruction. With eight Belgian universities ranked top in the world, it provides 65 universities with 1,146 study programs. Mostly on master’s and PhD level you would be able to find a lot of English taught programs. Let us take a closer look at them.

Master’s degree

A Master’s degree (60-120 ECTS): You are eligible for application after completing your bachelor’s degree. This type of program focuses on scientific knowledge and academic research.
An advanced master’s degree (60-120 ECTS): In case you are interested in a second master’s degree in a related field; this should be your choice. An advanced master’s program offers more specialized training to students to do further research in the field. This could be used as a steppingstone for the PhD program.

Doctorate degree

A PhD in Belgium normally lasts around 4-6 years. The procedure is to find the area which you are interested in and create a research proposal which matches the university requirements. Next step is to find a thesis supervisor to support you during this period and fund your project.

Scholarships in Belgium

The Belgian Technical Cooperation Scholarships

The VLIR-UOS Training and Master Scholarship

The Erasmus Mundus Joint Master scholarship

The Science at Leuven Scholarships for International Students

The University of Ghent Doctoral Special Research Fund

The Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF) Scholarship

The FRS-FNRS Scholarship

The Innoviris Scholarship

The Master Mind Scholarship

Our choice of 5 best universities in Belgium

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven)