En stoemsBelgian public decisions, out in the open
International Students' Day
Time and place according to Bruxelles Today: check fef.be before you set off.
Please note: this page covers French-speaking higher education in Belgium (the Wallonia-Brussels Federation), where the student union FEF is mobilising on 17 November. Different rules on tuition fees and study grants apply in Flanders and at Dutch-speaking institutions in Brussels. The integration income and your rights at a demonstration are set at federal level and apply everywhere in Belgium.
This page does not take sides: it sets out the rules, the figures and each side's arguments, with their sources.
Students are protesting against the tuition fee increase and against education reforms, according to Bruxelles Today (in French). Here is what the organisers are asking for, and the government's arguments.
The FEF, the French-speaking student union, is calling for:
The arguments of those opposed to the increase:
Minister-President Elisabeth Degryse (Les Engagés), on tuition fees:
On fundability, we have not found a recent government response. to be completed
The Paysage decree, which organises higher education in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, sets a number of credits to be passed within a given time. A student who does not manage this can become “non-fundable”: their institution no longer receives funding for them and may refuse to re-enrol them.
Infor Jeunes: the Paysage decree, students' anger (in French)
Find out more (in French):
Since the 2026 academic year, tuition fees (minerval) in French-speaking higher education depend on household income. Until then they were capped at €835.
The tuition fee increase is part of a wider text, the programme decree, which brings together the Wallonia-Brussels Federation's savings. The Federation's Parliament adopted it on 5 June 2026, at around 4 am, after some 14 hours of debate. The tuition reform is led by Minister-President Elisabeth Degryse (Les Engagés).
The opposition spoke of the text being forced through and challenged the procedure; amendments tabled by the PS suspended the vote for a few hours. How each member voted is set out in the official record of the sitting on the website of the Parliament of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation (in French). to be checked
Two things you often hear. Your opinion first, then the fact check.
“Going to university costs almost nothing.”
What do you think?
Tuition fees remain low compared with what a year of study really costs, most of which is paid by the public purse. But for students and their families, a year costs far more than the fees: housing, transport, materials, food. And since the 2026 academic year, fees have reached €1,194 for most students.
What a student costs the public purse varies widely by course and type of institution. The estimate of student living costs comes from the FEF, a party to the debate on tuition fees; an independent official estimate has yet to be found. The 10 % share applies to the maximum rate.
“At the CPAS, students get money without having to do anything in return.”
What do you think?
A student can receive the integration income from the CPAS, but under conditions and with obligations set out in a contract, the PIIS: attend classes, sit exams, send in results, be available for a student job if circumstances allow. The CPAS checks the student's means and also looks at what the parents can pay.
Practice varies from one CPAS to another: lawyers at the ULB have found requirements that are sometimes stricter than the law, such as automatically suspending support when a student has no student job. The figures of the federal public planning service for social integration count young people and students together.
On 17 November 1939, in Prague, the Nazi occupiers closed Czech universities after student demonstrations. Nine people, most of them students, were executed without trial, and more than 1,200 students were sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Czech universities stayed closed until the end of the war.
In 1941, in London, student organisations made the date International Students' Day.
Every figure on this page comes from one of these sources, almost all of them in French. Spotted a mistake? The About page explains how to report it.