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Higher education in facts and figures

ARES manages a system for collecting, analysing, researching and disseminating statistical information on higher education in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation.

This work includes defining indicators, establishing nomenclatures and providing data and analyses to national and European bodies.

Higher education in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation has 251,000 students in 2022-2023

  • 47% are enrolled at a university
  • 38% are enrolled at a university college
  • 3% are enrolled at an arts college
  • 12% are enrolled at an adult education institution
  • 74% are enrolled in a first cycle (bachelor's degree)
  • 23% are enrolled in a second cycle (master's degree)
  • 3% are enrolled in a third cycle (doctorate)

The number of students is steadily increasing:

  • +20% over the last 10 years (change from 2012-2013 to 2022-2023)
  • -0.5% between 2021-2022 and 2022-2023

Women are in the majority overall, except in postgraduate studies and science

Women are in the majority in first-cycle and second-cycle programmes:

  • 57% in bachelor's programmes
  • 58% in master's programmes
  • 47% in doctoral programmes

They are also in the majority in all categories of non-university higher education except in economics and management, science, agricultural science and biological engineering, engineering and technology, and performing arts and broadcasting and communication techniques.
 

They are in the majority in all fields of university higher education except in philosophy, theology, economics and management, science, agricultural science and biological engineering, engineering science and technology.

 

One in two foreign students is French

22% of students enrolled in higher education, excluding adult education, are foreign nationals. For example, 32% of students in the health sector, 38% of students in the field of architecture and urban planning, and 45% of students in higher education are not Belgian nationals.

  • 15% come from a Member State of the European Union
  • 7% from countries outside the European Union

The five countries with the highest number of foreign students in higher education are: France, Cameroon, Italy, Luxembourg and Morocco.

In short-cycle non-university higher education, 27% of students are enrolled in public health sciences, 19% in psychological sciences and education, and 15% in economics and management. These three fields account for 61% of foreign students.
 

In non-university higher education programmes of a long duration, more than one in three foreign students (35%) are enrolled in motor sciences. The arts sector (in ESA) accounts for 43% of foreign students.
 

In university education, four out of ten foreign students are enrolled in humanities and social sciences (43%), more than one in three (31%) in health sciences and around one in four in science and technology (25%).
 

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