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The higher education network of the Wallonia-Brussels Community includes universities that rank among the world’s best institutions, and specialist colleges. In universities foreign students account for nearly 20% of enrolment (this figure rises to 40% at doctoral level). Universities are remarkably well integrated in the landscape of high-level European research. Numerous research laboratories are members of European networks of excellence in many fields such as life sciences, nanotechnology, information technology, etc. Moreover, international surveys confirm the quality of their work at an international level.
The Wallonia-Brussels Community also has a very comprehensive higher education network operating alongside universities : specialist colleges. These offer training in the professional or artistic fields. Here, foreign students make up slightly more than 15% of enrolments. Universities and specialist colleges have signed hundreds of cooperation agreements with foreign educational establishments. Wallonia and Brussels share a valuable capital: the French language, spoken officially by nearly 200 million people on all five continents.
The Wallonia-Brussels Community offers a warm welcome in the heart of Europe, as well as a strong scientific tradition and many plans for the future. These are three reasons that will appeal to young people wishing to broaden their horizons or perfect their research skills in the region.
Wallonia is home to 11,000 researchers in innovation and a level of productivity 20% higher than the European average. It also has six focal points of competitiveness in fields where Wallonia can offer businesses, training centres and research centres organised into networks that place it in pole position on the European, if not world stage. These focal points are centred around: life sciences, agro-industry, mechanical engineering, transport and logistics, the aeronautical and aerospace industries and green technologies. Its universities are at the heart of centres of excellence: Louvain-la-Neuve, for biomedical research; Liège for astrophysics; Gembloux and Namur at the cutting edge of life sciences; Charleroi the same for aeronautics and the graphic arts.