How to Get Into a University in Belgium as an International Student

Fee figures: catalogue of 6 October 2026.

Belgium does not have one university system but two. Higher education is run by the language communities: the Dutch-speaking Flemish Community (Flanders) and the French-speaking Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (FWB), which covers Wallonia and the French-speaking institutions in Brussels. Each has its own laws, fees and entrance exams. Brussels has institutions from both, sometimes on neighbouring streets.

There is no national application portal. You apply directly to the university or university college (hogeschool in Dutch, haute école in French). Most bachelor's programmes admit every applicant who meets the conditions. Medicine and dentistry are the big exceptions.

Choosing a language

• French-taught programmes: ULB, UCLouvain, ULiège, UMons, UNamur and the hautes écoles.
• Dutch-taught programmes: KU Leuven, Ghent University, the University of Antwerp, VUB, UHasselt and the hogescholen.
• English-taught bachelor's programmes are rare. Our catalogue lists 88 programmes taught in English, from both communities.

No law sets one language test for all bachelor's students. Each institution decides what proof it wants. KU Leuven, for example, asks for Dutch at B2 at least, and C1 for some programmes. French-speaking universities set their own proof of French, often a DELF, DALF or TCF certificate. Check the admission page of each programme.

Your school diploma

In Flanders, the institution itself decides whether your foreign diploma gives access to its programme. You do not need a recognition from NARIC-Vlaanderen, the Flemish recognition office, to apply for a bachelor's: the admissions office assesses your diploma.

In the FWB, your foreign diploma must be officially declared equivalent to the Belgian school-leaving certificate (CESS) by the FWB's equivalence service, not by the university. For a start in 2027/28, files are accepted from 15 November 2026 to 15 July 2027, and the fee is €400. Start early.

Medicine, dentistry and other limited programmes

The rules differ completely between the two communities.

Flanders: the toelatingsexamen. Medicine, dentistry and veterinary medicine each have a competitive entrance exam with a fixed number of places, held once a year with no second sitting. For 2027 the exams are on 2 July (medicine), 3 July (dentistry) and 4 July (veterinary medicine), with registration from 1 March to 17 May 2027. In 2026 the quota was 1,878 places in medicine and 277 in dentistry.

FWB: the concours d'entrée. Medicine and dentistry are open only through a single competitive exam held once a year in the second half of August. In 2026 it was on 27 August, and 1,675 candidates were admitted in medicine and 272 in dentistry. Applicants not resident in Belgium can take at most 15% of the places. The 2027 date has not been announced yet.

FWB quotas for non-residents. In veterinary medicine, physiotherapy, speech therapy and audiology, places for students not resident in Belgium are capped (20% in veterinary medicine, 30% in the others) and, if oversubscribed, drawn by lot. You apply online during three days at the end of August, to one of these programmes only.

Art colleges and conservatoires in both communities admit students through an entrance test or audition. Outside these cases there is usually no selection, so Belgium does not publish cutoff scores.

Step by step

1. Choose the community and the language you will study in.
2. Shortlist programmes and read each institution's admission page, including its language requirement and its deadline for your nationality.
3. In the FWB, request the equivalence of your diploma. In Flanders, check what the admissions office wants.
4. For medicine or dentistry, register for the entrance exam in time.
5. Apply online to each institution. Non-EU applicants usually apply in winter or early spring: KU Leuven's deadline for its Dutch-taught programmes is 1 February 2027, and ULB and ULiège have set 31 March in recent years.
6. Enrol. In the FWB the general enrolment deadline is 30 September.

If you are not an EU citizen

You need a long-stay student visa (type D) and then a residence permit. You apply at the Belgian embassy or consulate with your admission letter and proof of enough money to live on. See how much it costs to study in Belgium for that amount and for the fees, and our student visa overview for the general process.

Where to look next

• How much it costs to study in Belgium
• All 1,429 programmes in Belgium by city and field
• DELF, DALF and TCF French exams

Official sources

• Study in Belgium: official portal of French-speaking Belgium for international students
• Study in Flanders: official portal of the Flemish Community
• Équivalences: equivalence of foreign school diplomas in the FWB (in French)
• Toelatingsexamens: Flemish entrance exams for medicine and dentistry (in Dutch)
• Mes études: the FWB entrance exam for medicine and dentistry (in French)

Always check current information on the official website of the university before you apply.