Higher Education System Development
In 1830, Belgium became an independent unitary and centralized state. The 1831 Constitution was gradually reformed between 1970 and 1993 to develop a federal system. Today, Belgium is a federal state composed of three communities and three regions. The communities are the Flemish (“Vlaanderen”), French (“Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles”), and German Community (“Deutschsprachige Gemeinschaft Belgiens”). The regions are the Flemish Region, the Walloon Region, and the Brussels-Capital Region. The regions and communities have their own legislative and executive bodies. However, the parliament and government of the Flemish Region and of the Flemish Community have merged, so that the Flemish part of Belgium now has one single Flemish parliament and one single Flemish government.
There is no strict hierarchy between the three policy levels (federal, community, region), but there is a division of competences. The Regions are in charge of economic policy,...
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References
Legislation
Belgian Constitution. n.d. http://www.const-court.be/en/basic_text/belgian_constitution.pdf.
De Groof, Jan, and Yvette Janssens. 2004. De Universitaire Regelgeving – Coördinatie en Annotatie. Tilburg: Wolf Legal Publishers. (with supplements following years).
De Groof, Jan, and Yvette Janssens. 2005. De Hogeschoolregelgeving – Coördinatie en Annotatie. Tilburg: Wolf Legal Publishers. (with supplements following years).
Flemish Code on Higher Education (in Dutch). n.d. http://data-onderwijs.vlaanderen.be/edulex/document.aspx?docid=14650#1276.
Websites
http://www.eui.eu/Documents/MWP/AcademicCareers/Countries/Belgium/BelgiumFlemishHigherEducation.pdf.
http://www.onderwijs.vlaanderen.be/en/education-in-flanders.
http://www.studyinflanders.be/en/education-system/structures/.
http://www.vlaanderen.be/nl/publicaties/detail/flemish-education-in-figures-2015-2016.
https://www.vlaanderen.be/nl/publicaties/detail/flemish-education-in-figures-2016-2017.
Literature
Broucker, Bruno, and Kurt De Wit. 2013. Liberalisation and privatisation of higher education in Flanders: Passing the point of no return? A case study. European Educational Research Journal 12 (4): 513–524.
De Groof, Jan. 1999. On ‘the European Higher Education Area’ after the Bologna declaration of 19 June 1999. European Journal for Education Law and Policy 3 (2).
De Groof, Jan. 2004. Trans-national models of accreditation – Aspects of the international cooperation in the field of quality assurance. In The yearbook of education law, ed. Charles Russo, 286–297. Education Law Association, Cleveland, Ohio.
De Groof, Jan. 2009. European higher education in search of a new legal order. In The European higher education area: Perspectives on a moving target, ed. Barbara M. Kehm, Jeroen Huisman, and Bjorn Stensaker, 79–104. Rotterdam: Sense.
De Groof, Jan. 2012. Thoughts on autonomy in policy and law within the European higher education space. In Intercultural dialogue and multi-level governance in Europe, a human rights based approach, ed. Léonce Bekemans, 81–140. Brussels: Peter Lang.
De Groof, Jan, and Zoontjens Paul. 2006. ‘National’ and ‘public’ higher education in an international context. In European higher education in the 21st century: What prospects? ed. Spyridon Flogaitis and ALthanassios Kyriazis, 83–92. London: Esperia.
De Wit, Kurt, and Harry de Boer. 2010. Governance and funding reform in the European higher education area. National System Analysis: Belgium (Flanders). In Methodology, performance data, literature survey, national system analyses and case studies. Vol. 2 of progress in higher education reform across Europe: Governance and funding reform, ed. Ben Jongbloed, Harry de Boer, Jürgen Enders, and Jon File, 130–146. Brussels: European Commission.
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De Groof, J., Willems, K. (2018). Higher Education Systems and Institutions, Belgium. In: Encyclopedia of International Higher Education Systems and Institutions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9553-1_390-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9553-1_390-1
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