UGent wants more language autonomy in study programmes
Ghent University has asked the government to give them more power to decide in which language to provide study programmes, as current regulations are too limiting
The 6% rule
For every programme in another language, a Dutch-language equivalent has to be available somewhere in Flanders. “Submitting a dossier to organise an English-speaking programme takes a lot of time and is very complex,” UGent spokesperson Stephanie Lenoir told De Standaard. “We want more autonomy.”
While the University of Leuven did not agree that the problem was urgent, it agreed with UGent’s proposal to replace the obligation for a “Flemish variant” of each English-language programme by “a variant in Flanders or the Netherlands”.
In a recent report, the Flemish Education Council called the quantitative restrictions unnecessary. If the government wants to maintain a restriction, the council said, it should raise it to 50% for bachelor’s programmes and abolish it for master’s studies.
Nationalist party N-VA is opposed to UGent’s idea, saying that more English will be detrimental to the role of Dutch in higher education. Flemish education minister Hilde Crevits (CD&V) pointed out that the maximum numbers have not even been reached, as currently fewer than 2% of bachelor’s and 22% of master’s programmes are given in another language.
Crevits said she will continue to monitor the situation and is open for discussion.
