Masters of the university – may the course be with
you!
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Leuven
University library ©KULeuven |
August 2006
“University
degrees are a bit like adultery,” Imbert Peter, a
British police commissioner, once quipped in the highbrow Times, “you may
not want to get involved with that sort of thing, but you don’t want to be
thought incapable.”
And judging by attendance figures at
universities, more and more people are choosing to indulge in this forbidden
fruit – over and over again. Some go on to do graduate studies straight after
their first degree, while others find it more appropriate to put a few years of
work experience between them and academia. Many evidently subscribe to
Aristotle’s observation that: “The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit
is sweet.”
“Like a lot of expats, I initially came to
Belgium for romantic reasons. I looked into post-grad study as a way of staying
in Belgium and furthering my career,” explains Christian Nielsen, a
Brussels-based journalist. The two masters he has done over the past six years
have helped advance his career and personal development, he believes.
Tongues of
opportunity
As pointed out in the previous article, Belgium
has one of the best education systems in the world. Belgian higher education institutions
graduate top-class talent and their cutting-edge research endeavours have
notched up an impressive number of breakthroughs. There are eight main
universities: two branches of the Free University of Brussels (VUB and ULB),
two branches of the Catholic University of Leuven (Leuven and
Louvain-la-Neuve), Antwerp, Gent, Liège and Mons.
All of them are adjusting their programmes, to
varying degrees, to reflect the emerging reality that English is the lingua
franca of academia. At the postgraduate level, Walloon universities have
been introducing modules in English into their programmes as well as English
language proficiency classes, while Flemish universities have been moving
towards programmes predominantly taught in English.
Speaking the
global language of academia
Given the
Flemish propensity for foreign languages, English is becoming an increasingly
common medium of exchange in Flanders’ leading universities: Leuven, Gent
and Antwerp.
“We offer
English-medium programmes to attract more international students and to prepare
our own students to face the challenges of an international labour market,”
explains Delfien Cloet of Gent University.
This year,
out of a student population of 26,000, Gent has more than 900 of its own
students and around 800 exchange students registered for an English-medium
postgraduate course. The university offers six masters programmes in
engineering and bio-engineering in English, as well as two European Erasmus
Mondus masters. At the advanced masters level, there is no pre-defined language
of instruction and professors and students can negotiate.
Leuven
University offers 62 masters programmes in English, according to Jan
Herpelinck, the university’s head of Student Services. The university has no
precise figures for the number of students following English programmes. Of its
31,000 students, 3,785 are international students studying in English or Dutch.
There are no statistics on the number of Belgians studying in English.
“PhD
programmes are individually defined. A student can approach a professor and ask
to do a doctorate in English,” he points out.
With 12% of
its student population coming from abroad, Antwerp University offers a number
of postgraduate programmes in English at its faculties of science, art,
economics, as well as management, transport and development policy.
The original
lingua franca
In more monolingual
Wallonia, universities still rely largely on the original lingua franca itself,
French. But with the retreat of French as a global language, francophone
universities in Belgium have been shifting slowly towards English.
“Our working
language is French but some exceptions can be made,” explains an administrator
at Liège University. Some modules of a graduate programme can be given in
English, students can draw on sources written in other languages, international
students may address professors in English, and the working language in
European networks in which the university is involved is usually English.
At the ULB
in Brussels, this process is moving ahead faster. “Most faculties now have a
language component at undergraduate level as part of the university’s language
plan to help French-speaking students to boost their language abilities,” says
Ian Tudor, a professor of languages at the ULB. “There is also a growing
tendency to offer post-graduate programmes partly in English.”
While
acknowledging the importance of a universal language for academia, Tudor warns
about the possible debilitating effects of English. “The offering of courses in
English is raising concerns in countries like Denmark and Latvia where it has
taken off significantly. People are afraid that it will kill off the local
language in academia.”
Tudor is
part of an EU-backed project called the European Network for the Promotion of
Language Learning Among all Undergraduates (http://web.fu-berlin.de/enlu/). One
of the network’s four task groups is exploring the issue of teaching through
the medium of a foreign language.
University
business spin-offs
One
exception to this Francophone rule is the ULB’s Solvay
Business School which offers a number of masters and PhD programmes in
English, including programmes in finance, ICT and management science. Its
recently launched international masters in management is a joint programme run
by the ULB and its Flemish sister university the VUB.
Solvay is
not the only business school in Belgium backed by an official university. Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School has the
blessing of two: Gent and Leuven. The 50-year-old establishment offers both
post-graduate degrees (MBA and Masters programmes), and post-experience
management courses (general and specialised courses for executives and
company-specific
programmes).
With 5,000
students and a history of more than 75 years, EHSAL,
the European University College Brussels, has been organising English-medium
masters programmes for the past eight years. It offers a European masters of
business information systems, an international MBA and a masters of European
business. It has been in an association with Leuven University since 2002.
Private
affairs
Private
establishments also offer graduate programmes in English, but the
qualifications they provide are usually not officially recognised by the state.
With 210
students, the International Management Institute
runs an MBA programme, as well as masters in arts in business communication and
public relations; science in information communication technology, a master of
arts in tourism and hospitality management, and a master of science in European
business and management.
According to
the IMI website, a typical masters programme consists of thirty courses spread
over six terms of five weeks each. The institute also encourages students to improve
their language skills by choosing elective courses in several European
languages. “We are not recognised by the Belgian authorities but we have
started procedure for accreditation,” notes IMI’s Luc Van Mele.
The United Business Institutes have about 200
students of which around 100 are working towards an MBA, explains UBI’s
Marie-Laurence Demousselle. According to her, the institute draws most of its
students from the ranks of professionals and civil servants looking to advance
their careers. “”We are not accredited but our programme is widely recognised
in the business community,” she said.
This
article appeared in the July 2006 issue of (A)Way magazine.
From the
archives
The
language placebo
January 2005
– To hear some politicians speak, one would think that language and culture
were the panacea for all
A
state of pragmatism
March 2004 – As one of the original six
founders of the European Union,
More
to
March 2004 – As the European Union prepares for
a political shift eastwards, its famously Byzantine politics will get just that
bit more confusing. The new member states may make the EU’s bureaucratic
landscape seem greyer, but the accompanying influx of thousands of eastern
Europeans will make the cultural kaleidoscope of Brussels, the city that plays
host to so many of its institutions, that much more colourful. Read on
Words
without frontiers
January 2003 – Many parents are calling for
immersion language learning to be made widespread in
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