Belgian Students Weigh Success Rules and Rising Fees

As the new academic year begins across Belgium’s French-speaking higher education system, thousands of students are returning to class weighed down by a familiar double anxiety: whether they will meet the criteria needed to keep studying, and whether they can still afford to. The 2026-2027 rentrée, which officially kicks off on Monday 14 September, opens a second full year under the strict version of the so-called ‘décret Paysage’, the framework that governs universities, hautes écoles and arts schools in the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles.

According to RTBF, the mood is mixed—a blend of discovery and worry over the conditions required to succeed and to remain ‘finançable’, meaning eligible for state subsidies.

What ‘Finançable’ Means

The term is the crux of the system. A finançable student is one whose institution receives subsidies from the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles to cover teaching costs. A student who loses that status can be shut out of subsidized higher education unless an institution agrees to carry the cost from its own funds—a far more expensive path.

The rules are strict. Students must validate all 60 credits of their first year, known as ‘bloc 1’, within two registrations, with a third possible only as an exception granted by a jury. A bachelor’s degree of 180 credits must be completed within five years of registration, and a course is considered passed only with a grade of at least 10/20. Exceeding the maximum duration of a cycle results in the loss of finançabilité.

The human cost of those numbers was on display during an information session at the University of Mons (UMons). Élia, a psychology student caught between her bachelor’s and master’s, told RTBF she has three bachelor courses still outstanding. “I got access to the master’s, but not to all of it. I’m entitled to only 48 credits,” she said, adding that she now worries how long her degree will take—and whether she will remain finançable.

Théo, a first-year management student who passed only one course last year, voiced a different fear: that personal troubles unrelated to his studies could block his path. “I’m afraid of being blocked. Of reaching the end of this year with all my credits acquired and not having the opportunity to continue my bachelor’s,” he said.

Margins of Manoeuvre

University officials stress that the rules are not automatic dead ends. Isabelle Renato, head of the financing and student statistics service at UMons, noted that a student refused re-enrollment can request a derogation, and that such appeals are sometimes granted when the reasons are explained. “They aren’t necessarily stopped, as long as they haven’t reached a checkpoint in their path,” she said.

Anne Turchet, an academic advisor at UMons, pointed to the reorientation window running from 1 November to 15 February, which lets a first-year student who made the wrong choice switch tracks without losing a full year. “There’s no shame in it,” she said.

The Scale of the Problem

The stakes are substantial. Following the 2024-2025 academic year, close to 14,000 students declared non-financable requested re-enrollment for 2025-2026, according to Le Vif. Of those, 6,141 were within the five French-speaking universities—ULiège, UCLouvain, ULB, UNamur and UMons—with 7,654 more in hautes écoles and 102 in arts schools, as RTBF reported. Those are requests to re-enroll, not confirmed exclusions, and a majority of appeals were accepted.

A Court Victory—and a Fee Fight

There has been one significant reprieve. In a ruling of 25 June 2026, the Constitutional Court sided with the Fédération des Étudiant·e·s Francophones (FEF) and annulled a finançabilité provision affecting students who reoriented in 2024-2025 after two bachelor registrations. As the FEF put it, the Court held that the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles should have adopted transitional measures; affected students now keep two additional registrations for finançabilité checkpoints.

Affordability, however, remains the dominant grievance. From this academic year the full-rate tuition fee—the ‘minerval’—rises from €835 to €1,194, under an income-modulated scale of €0 / €374 / €835 / €1,194. The FEF argues the change threatens access for students whose finances are precarious but who fall outside automated reductions. Its petition against the increase has gathered more than 45,000 signatures, and a demonstration was held on 24 March, the federation noted.

Some institutions are stepping in. In July, the Université libre de Bruxelles announced new aid from 2026-2027, La Libre reported. Students who meet the Fédération’s income ceilings but are excluded from legal reductions for administrative reasons can have their minerval limited to €325, €485 or €835, while a special measure caps fees at €835 for those whose income slightly exceeds the thresholds. About one in four students already receives financial support.

What to Watch

The tension between completion targets and access will not disappear. As the year begins, students and universities alike are watching whether the court’s intervention prompts broader revisions—or whether rising fees and rigid checkpoints continue to reshape who gets to finish a degree in French-speaking Belgium.