40 Foreign Students Blocked from Ghent University by Visas

Around 40 foreign students and researchers have been unable to start the academic year at Ghent University (UGent) because their visas were not granted in time, prompting the university’s Faculty of Bioscience Engineering to publicly demand that the federal government resolve a growing backlog at Belgium’s Immigration Office.

According to VRT NWS, the affected students come from Bangladesh, India, Morocco and several African countries, and have already passed UGent’s strict selection process and met the government’s own requirements. The problem emerges only at the visa stage.

“We see more and more problems with visa applications from foreign students and researchers in recent years,” said Wim Hoste of the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, who has become the lead voice in the complaint. “People from Bangladesh, India, Morocco and other African countries simply do not get through. It goes wrong when they apply for a visa.”

A Painful Start to the Academic Year

The academic year is beginning, and the faculty is still waiting for roughly 40 people from abroad. Hoste described the situation bluntly: the embassies and consulates routinely forward student applications to the Immigration Office (DVZ), which then fails to process the files in time, leaving students unable to travel even though their paperwork is complete.

The university says the burden falls hardest on applicants who have already invested months in the process. Students must show 12,000 euros in a blocked account and pay increasingly expensive application fees, only to be stranded in administrative limbo. Hoste estimates that nearly 10,000 foreign students and researchers work across Flanders.

The DVZ acknowledges the pressure. “Embassies and consulates approve the very strong files,” spokesperson Paulien Blondeel said. “The other files come to DVZ for assessment, often all in the same period.” The agency confirms it receives many applications and that deadlines are not always met.

Sector Warns of Lost Talent

The call from UGent is being backed by Agoria, the federation representing Belgium’s technology sector, which frames the backlog as an economic risk rather than a purely administrative one.

“Our technology companies, knowledge institutions and research centres need these profiles to remain innovative and competitive,” said Agoria spokesperson Jan Gatz. “In an international battle for talent, we cannot afford to lose them. Especially now that the recent PISA results show that the group of our own strong profiles continues to decline.”

Hoste made a similar point, contrasting Belgium’s approach with that of other countries. “Belgium’s position is bizarre,” he said. “In Canada they are actually freeing up extra money in the budget to attract foreign top profiles.”

The Faculty of Bioscience Engineering has a long tradition of international cooperation and is the destination for most of UGent’s foreign students. Its offerings in food technology, environmental technology and aquaculture are directly relevant to developing countries. As far back as 2021, the faculty reported nearly 500 foreign students across the first two years, drawn from more than 100 countries, VRT NWS reported at the time.

A Political Flashpoint over Gaza

The visa backlog is unfolding in the aftermath of a fierce political dispute over 13 Palestinian students and researchers from Gaza who hold Belgian scholarships and, in some cases, visas, but who cannot obtain the necessary travel documents.

Belgium’s Asylum and Migration Minister, Anneleen Van Bossuyt of the Flemish nationalist N-VA, has publicly opposed their arrival. Speaking to the broadcaster’s Sunday programme, she warned of a “domino effect.”

“It is proposed that it only concerns 13 people, but we must not forget the domino effect,” she said. “They can do family reunification or apply for asylum here. Because with a student visa you are obliged to return afterwards.” She asked why the same logic would not then apply to people from Yemen or Sudan, or to Afghan girls who want to study in Belgium.

Flor Didden of the development umbrella organisation 11.11.11 rejected that reasoning outright. “It concerns 13 students who have been invited by a Belgian university and for whom a scholarship has been provided,” she said. “In some cases your services have issued a visa. They have the right to come to Belgium.”

Hoste disputed the minister’s framing directly, saying there is “no indication whatsoever” of a domino effect. “The minister makes an unjustified statement about people who have ambition and want to contribute to our society,” he said. The faculty had expected three people from Gaza last year; they never arrived.

The Gaza case has already reached the courts twice. In a May ruling, the Brussels Court of First Instance ordered the Belgian State to allow a Gazan student holding a Hasselt University scholarship to submit a visa application remotely, according to a legal analysis published by vreemdelingenrecht.be. The court stressed that it was ruling only on the modality of applying remotely, not on whether a visa should be granted. NRC reported that Belgium finances the scholarships yet refuses to process the Gazan academics’ visa applications online, and that there is no Belgian diplomatic post in Gaza where they could apply in person.

A Broader Crackdown on Internationalisation

The standoff over Gaza is the most visible front in a wider policy shift. In June, Van Bossuyt announced stricter conditions for non-EU students, requiring faster study progress and limiting the ability to repeatedly change study direction, as VRT NWS reported. Last year, nearly 14,000 non-EU students applied for a first study visa; 82 percent of applications to recognised institutions were approved, against only 51 percent for unrecognised ones.

At the same time, the Flemish coalition, led by N-VA, is curbing the internationalisation of higher education, modelling its approach on policies in the neighbouring Netherlands. As the higher-education outlet Punt reported, the government is seeking roughly 80 million euros in cuts, non-EEA tuition fees are rising sharply, and every English-language programme is now required to have a Dutch-language counterpart.

The combination has placed universities in an uncomfortable position: squeezed on funding while being asked to compete for the very international talent that the visa system and tuition hikes are making harder to attract. Analysts note that Belgium’s universities host a far smaller share of foreign students than Dutch institutions, which makes the loss of even a few dozen carefully selected candidates disproportionately significant for specialised faculties.

What to Watch

The immediate test is whether the roughly 40 blocked students can still reach Ghent before the term is too far advanced, or whether they lose a full year. The DVZ has acknowledged that deadlines are slipping, but has not announced new capacity or a fast-track procedure.

Politically, the Gaza file remains unresolved, with courts having ordered remote processing in individual cases while the minister continues to resist a general solution. Civil society groups argue the students hold valid visas and scholarships and therefore have a legal right to come; the government frames the issue as a question of precedent and control.

For UGent’s Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, the stakes are practical. “We risk missing out on academic top talents; they are an enormous added value,” Hoste said. Whether Brussels moves to clear the backlog — or allows the visa pipeline to remain a bottleneck — will signal how seriously Belgium intends to compete in the global contest for skilled researchers.