It's good-bye to the 'eternal student'

A quarter of all Flemish students in higher education stop after one or two years without getting a diploma. In order to improve this result students who get a result under 60% in their first year may have to take extra guidance during the second. The move is intended to increase study results.

Universities and polytechnics will also be able to see students’ results at other seats of learning and will be able to set extra conditions if students re-sit a subject they took elsewhere and failed. The move is intended to stop students from retaking identical studies at other seats of learning in the hope of muddling through.

The academic world has broadly welcomed the changes. Leuven University vice rector Didier Pollefeyt, who also chairs the education working group of the Flemish Inter University Council: "This means students will have to rethink the direction of their studies at an earlier stage. They will have to realise if they wish to re-sit the same studies elsewhere they may face stricter conditions at their new university."

Student voices oppose the changes. Andries Verslyppe of the Leuven Student Council points out that studies with the same name may not be identical at a different seat of learning: "We understand the rationale, but it's not sensible to introduce fresh limitations."