© BART DEWAELE
This academic year, KU Leuven, Ghent University and VUB have submitted applications for ten master’s programs to deviate from the current language regulations. Despite favorable advice from the competent committee, the Flemish government rejected those applications.
Source: BELGA
Yesterday at 6:19 am
De Standaard wrote this on Monday. “We will never allow our higher education to be de-Dutchified,” says Flemish Minister of Education Ben Weyts (N-VA).
The current language regulations stipulate that there must be a Dutch-language equivalent for every English-language master’s degree. The universities want to scrap the Dutch-language variant for some specific master’s degrees. “In addition to an English-language option, a Dutch-language option must be retained,” says Weyts. “Flemish students have the right to a quality education in their own language, from nursery to the final year of university.”
Compromise in the making
Last year, Weyts intervened in the phasing out of Dutch-language master’s programs. Then there was a battle for the civil engineer track, which, according to Weyts, is a showpiece of the knowledge region of Flanders.
Once again, this concerns very specific courses, emphasizes Jan Danckaert, rector of the VUB and chairman of the Flemish interuniversity council (Vlir). He is surprised by the minister’s intervention. “In very research-intensive fields, the organization of a Dutch-language master’s degree creates a very high workload for the courses. It requires a lot of energy, while sometimes it only involves a few or even no students.”
Weyts emphasizes that the next education decree contains a compromise. Dutch-language equivalents for foreign-language courses will then, just like other courses, be largely in a different language. This concerns 18.33 percent in the bachelor’s programs and up to 50 percent in the master’s programs.