"Courses canceled, not enough room in the audience": the Belgian facs of psycho overwhelmed by the arrival of the French

A student from the ULB had sent us a warning cry a few weeks ago. The Federation of Francophone Students has taken over and calls for emergency measures. The deans of the main faculties reacted.

Belgian universities face an influx of French students in psychology dismissed at the doors of the master, raising fears for the quality of education in the sector, denounced this week the Federation of French Students (FEF) and the Belgian Federation Psychologists (FBP).

"I write to you since the psychology school of ULB (Free University of Brussels, Ed) where the situation is disastrous: courses canceled, no place in the audience, not enough teachers / courses / memories, secretariats overwhelmed, etc. .! In short, since the mbadive arrival of French in Master 1, the faculty (teachers and students included) is drowning and the quality of education is no longer there. We would like to understand a little bit about what has led the university to accept more students than it can support, and to get the competent authorities to react to find solutions. Please, help", we had recently written a student wishing to remain anonymous.

Although this year's return has been particularly spectacular, the French phenomenon is coupled with an attraction of the sector in French-speaking Belgium, but many deans have qualified.

218 requests this year instead of 27 in 2016 …

"French universities have the obligation to offer a place in master after a bachelor (license, in France), but not necessarily in the sector chosen by the student", explains Laurent Lefebvre, Dean of the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Mons.

So, "some French universities only accept 10% of their Bac 3 population", says Arnaud Destrebecqz, dean of the Faculty of Psychology at the ULB Instead of accepting a reorientation after three years of study, some French students are turning to Belgium.

The UMons has received 218 applications for a master's degree in psychology from French students, compared with 27 in 2016. "About 30 to 40% of the files submitted are followed by an inscription "says Lefebvre, who explains that candidates usually apply to several universities.

The company is not outdone with 213 applications received and 64 entries effective this year, against sixty in 2016.

But it is the ULB that attracts the most French candidates: out of nearly 600 applications filed, "six times more than two years agoArnaud Destrebecqz points out, about 450 have been followed by an inscription.If the admission criteria depend on one university to another, the attractiveness of the capital and the good connection of transport with France can explain this. success.

Staff building, but …

Faced with this influx, the deans of the three faculties solicited the help of their university, which resulted in the possibility of strengthening the teaching staff by four full-time equivalents at UMons, two at the ULB. The audience did not have to be split but some practical work.

"The problem", Pointe Etienne Quertement, dean of the Faculty at ULiège, "We are working with a closed envelope, but since 2011, there has been a steady growth of psychology students", well before the French boom.

"Teachers are also researchers and, if they teach more hours, they have less time for research", continues the dean of ULiège, who points a long-term risk for the world ranking of Belgian universities francophones.