Belgium

• Very low EU tuition: 1,181.40 EUR for a full 60-credit year in Flanders in 2026/27, and a means-tested scale from 0 to 1,194 EUR in French-speaking Belgium.
• KU Leuven dates from 1425, and Ghent and UCLouvain are large research universities.
• Brussels is the centre of EU institutions, which makes it an unusually good base for politics, law, economics and international relations - and for internships.
• Open access for most programmes: if your diploma is recognised and you meet the language requirement, you enrol. There is no points race.
• Living costs are moderate by western European standards - Study in Flanders puts a student month at roughly 800-1,000 EUR including 450-600 EUR rent.

• English-taught bachelor's are rare. Flemish law restricts English-taught bachelor programmes, and most of what you will find in English at bachelor level sits at university colleges or in a handful of specific programmes. Check that the exact programme exists in English before you build a plan around Belgium.
• Medicine and dentistry are closed by examination, and from 2027 so is veterinary medicine. Flanders publishes real 2027 dates - registration 1 March to 17 May 2027, then examinations on 2, 3 and 4 July 2027 - and the July sitting falls before your IB results are released. French-speaking Belgium runs a single ranked concours in the second half of August, with a hard cap on non-resident students, and has not yet set its 2027 date.
• Your diploma must be recognised before you can enrol, and the two communities do this differently: NARIC-Vlaanderen in Flanders, the equivalence service of the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles in the south. Start it early - these procedures take weeks and have their own deadlines. Exception: in the French-speaking community a full IB Diploma from an IB-recognised school needs no equivalence at all (equivalences.cfwb.be, as of September 2026).
• From 2026/27 the French-speaking community replaced its flat minerval with a four-tier means-tested scale, so what you pay depends on a grant assessment you have to apply for.
• Deadlines are set by each institution, not nationally, and KU Leuven does not publish a university-wide one at all. Its application-windows tool answers per programme, and as of September 2026 it offers no 2027-2028 academic year. Dates of 1 March and 1 June circulate for KU Leuven, but they appear on none of its pages, so do not rely on them. Look up your own programme.
• Two of the pages that matter most in Belgium are interactive: the Flemish entrance-examination pages, now at vlaanderen.be/toelatingsexamens, and KU Leuven's deadline tool. Check dates there yourself rather than trusting a summary elsewhere.

Accepted

Yes

Subjects and levels

Belgium does not publish a national IB conversion. Flanders requires a secondary education diploma that gives access to university study in the country where it was awarded, plus a declaration from your school confirming that. A full IB Diploma satisfies this in principle, but recognition is decided case by case by NARIC-Vlaanderen or by the institution. Specific programmes (engineering, sciences, medicine) set their own subject expectations and will look at your HL choices.

Score conversion

No official IB-to-Belgian grade conversion is published. Belgian bachelor entry is normally about eligibility and language rather than a ranked score, with the exception of the medicine and dentistry entrance examinations.

• Flanders: Study in Flanders states that most qualifications obtained abroad do not grant direct admission and are assessed individually, so allow time for the equivalence or admission decision.
• French-speaking Belgium: a full IB Diploma issued by the IB from an IB-recognised school needs no equivalence decision to enter higher education (equivalences.cfwb.be, as of September 2026). Other foreign diplomas, and IB Course Results without the Diploma, go through the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles equivalence service.
• Because Belgian enrolment often runs into September, the July release of IB results is usually not a problem - unlike the medicine entrance exams, which you sit before or just after results.

1. Decide which community you are applying to - Flanders (Dutch-speaking) or the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (French-speaking). The rules, fees and calendars are different.

2. Confirm on the institution's own site that the programme you want is genuinely taught in English at bachelor level.

3. Start the diploma recognition or admission procedure early: NARIC-Vlaanderen or the institution's admissions office in Flanders. In French-speaking Belgium a full IB Diploma from an IB-recognised school needs no equivalence.

4. Prove English at the level the programme asks for - Study in Flanders gives B2 (IELTS 6.0 overall, TOEFL iBT 72-94) as the usual minimum for bachelor's, with C1 for some programmes.

5. Apply directly to the institution by its own deadline for your programme. KU Leuven sets deadlines per programme and publishes them only through its application-windows tool.

6. If you want medicine or dentistry, register for the entrance examination in the relevant community as soon as registration opens - this is a separate process with its own hard deadline.

7. Once admitted, enrol, pay the tuition fee and arrange a room, and register with the local commune after you arrive.

Most Belgian bachelor's are open access: meet the diploma, equivalence and language conditions and you are in, with no ranking on grades. The big exceptions are medicine and dentistry, which are closed by entrance examination in both communities. In French-speaking Belgium a further group of programmes - physiotherapy, veterinary medicine, speech therapy, and psychological sciences with a speech-therapy focus at universities, plus physiotherapy, speech therapy and audiology at university colleges - restricts non-resident students to a quota (30% of the previous year's enrolment, 20% for veterinary medicine) and allocates those places by random draw when demand exceeds the quota. For medicine and dentistry in that community, 30% of those who pass the entrance exam can be non-residents. Non-EU students only count as 'residents' in narrow circumstances such as five years of prior residence in Belgium; a Belgian address alone is not enough.

• 18 May to 5 July 2026
  2026 session - the 2027 window is not published

  French-speaking Belgium - ARES concours registration window

  Hard deadline

  Details

  After this the door closes.

  The official dates-cles page gives "Ouverture des inscriptions - 18 mai 2026" and "Cloture des inscriptions - 5 juillet 2026 a 23h59"; note the 23h59 closing time. The 50 euro fee must be paid online before registration closes, and an unpaid application is not processed. The window opens roughly fourteen weeks before the examination, which is why it is recorded even though the 2027 equivalent has not been set: if the rhythm repeats, registration for the August 2027 concours would open in May 2027, before your IB results.

  Source

• 27 August 2026
  2026 session, the pattern for 2027

  French-speaking Belgium - ARES concours 2026 session and results

  Details

  "Le concours d'entree est organise une seule fois par an, le jeudi 27 aout 2026", at Brussels Expo, in person only, 09h30 to 17h00 with no admission after 10h30. Results followed on 4 September 2026. The rule for 2027 is that results come within three days of the jury's deliberation and at most ten days after the examination. Two structural points a candidate applying from Denmark needs: non-residents compete for a capped share of places, 15 per cent for medecine and dentisterie and 20 per cent for sciences veterinaires, and you may sit the concours in at most two different academic years within any five-year period, with sittings from 2023 onwards already counting.

  Source

• 1 March to 17 May 2027

  Flanders - registration for the entrance examinations in medicine, dentistry and veterinary medicine

  Hard deadline Via Flemish institution

  Details

  After this the door closes.

  No late registration. One registration and fee per exam.

  A genuine 2027 window, published in Dutch as "Je kan je inschrijven van 1 maart tot en met 17 mei 2027" - 17 May included. This closes more than six weeks before the exam and there is no late entry, so it is the date that decides whether you sit at all. You register and pay separately for each of the three examinations; the fee was 65 euro per examination in 2026 and the 2027 figure is not yet published. At registration you must name which programme is your preference, and that choice is binding: if you qualify for more than one, you are ranked only for the preferred one. Source, in Dutch: the Flemish government's exam pages at vlaanderen.be/toelatingsexamens.

  Source

• 2 July 2027

  Flanders - entrance examination, medicine (toelatingsexamen arts)

  Hard deadline Via Flemish institution

  Details

  After this the door closes.

  Dentistry is on 3 July, veterinary medicine on 4 July.

  Published as "vrijdag 2 juli 2027" - one of the first 2027 dates Belgium has published. It falls four days before IB results are released on 6 July 2027, so you sit it not knowing your diploma grades. That is survivable, because the rule is about the diploma rather than the marks: you must hold your secondary-school diploma by 30 September of the year you are favourably ranked. The examination has two parts, Kennis in de Wetenschappen and Generieke Competenties, and is taken on paper. It is a ranking competition - only those "gunstig gerangschikt" may start - not a pass mark. Source, in Dutch: the Flemish government's exam pages at vlaanderen.be/toelatingsexamens.

  Source

• 3 July 2027
  2027 entry

  Flanders - entrance examination, dentistry (toelatingsexamen tandarts)

  Hard deadline

  Details

  After this the door closes.

  Published as "zaterdag 3 juli 2027". From 2027 the three examinations are held on three consecutive days, so sitting more than one is physically possible but means three registrations and three fees. Source, in Dutch: the Flemish government's exam pages at vlaanderen.be/toelatingsexamens.

  Source

• 4 July 2027
  2027 entry

  Flanders - entrance examination, veterinary medicine (toelatingsexamen dierenarts)

  Hard deadline

  Details

  After this the door closes.

  Published as "zondag 4 juli 2027". Veterinary medicine is new to this examination - the Flemish entrance examination now covers arts, tandarts and dierenarts, where it used to cover only the first two. Source, in Dutch: the Flemish government's exam pages at vlaanderen.be/toelatingsexamens.

  Source

• 6 July 2027

  IB results released

  Via Flemish institution

• 6 July 2027

  IB results released

  Via French-speaking Belgian institution

• 30 September 2027
  2027 entry

  Flanders - deadline to hold your secondary-school diploma if you are favourably ranked

  Hard deadline

  Details

  After this the door closes.

  The rule that makes the July examination workable for an IB candidate, published as: you must be favourably ranked for that specific programme and "ten laatste op 30 september van het jaar van gunstige rangschikking je diploma secundair onderwijs behaald hebben". Your IB diploma is issued in early July, comfortably inside it. Source, in Dutch: the Flemish government's exam pages at vlaanderen.be/toelatingsexamens.

  Source

• Set by each institution

  Applications open at most Flemish institutions

  Via Flemish institution

  Details

  Usually around November-December. Each institution sets its own opening and closing dates.

• Set by each institution

  Apply on the institution's own website

  Via French-speaking Belgian institution

  Details

  Wallonie-Bruxelles Campus recommends applying between February and 31 March. Each institution's own date is the binding one.

• Not yet announced for this intake

  Register for the ARES medicine, dentistry and veterinary entrance exam

  Hard deadline Via French-speaking Belgian institution

  Details

  After this the door closes.

  In 2026 registration ran 18 May to 5 July, 23:59.

• Not yet announced for this intake

  ARES entrance exam (concours)

  Hard deadline Via French-speaking Belgian institution

  Details

  After this the door closes.

  One sitting a year, in late August. In 2026 it was 27 August, with results on 4 September.

• Not yet announced for this intake
  2027 entry

  French-speaking Belgium - concours d'entree en medecine, dentisterie et sciences veterinaires (ARES)

  Hard deadline

  Details

  After this the door closes.

  Not yet published: "Pour 2027, la date du concours n'est pas encore connue", and the registration page says "cette date n'a pas encore ete fixee pour l'edition 2027" and "Les inscriptions a l'epreuve du concours 2027 ne sont pas encore possibles actuellement". What is fixed is the frame: "Le concours est une epreuve unique organise entre le 16 et le 31 aout de chaque annee" - one sitting a year, in the second half of August, in person. For 2026 the day was Thursday 27 August at Brussels Expo, with registration 18 May to 5 July 2026 at 23h59 and results on 4 September; those 2026 dates are shown as separate entries, as a guide. Two changes for 2027 matter: sciences veterinaires joins medecine and dentisterie, and you choose one filiere and one university at registration. Recheck around April or May 2027; the dates-cles page is the one that will flip first.

  Source

• Set by each institution
  2027-2028 not published; the tool offers only 2026-2027 and earlier

  KU Leuven - bachelor application deadlines

  Details

  KU Leuven publishes its deadlines only through an interactive tool on its application pages (www.kuleuven.be/english/apply/). Its academic-year selector offers only 2026-2027, 2025-2026 and 2024-2025 - there is no 2027-2028, so nothing is published for your intake. KU Leuven states the principle plainly: "Every programme at KU Leuven has its own entry requirements, application procedure and deadlines", several English-taught programmes have a fixed deadline and the rest do not, and the tool does not block late submissions in any case. Look your own programme up rather than working to a university-wide date.

  Source

• No central deadline
  2026-2027 wording; not restated for 2027-2028

  KU Leuven - Dutch-taught bachelor programmes, no deadline for EEA citizens

  Details

  The one nationality-specific deadline KU Leuven states in plain text, and it is good news: "For Dutch-taught programmes, the deadline for non-EEA applicants is 1 February. EEA applicants applying for a Dutch-taught programme are not subject to a deadline." As an EU/EEA citizen you are in the second group. It says nothing about English-taught programmes, which are handled per programme.

  Source

• Set by each institution
  General rule - confirm with the institution

  Flanders - when applications open at most institutions

  Details

  What Study in Flanders does publish, on its how-to-apply page, is the opening rather than the closing: "Each Flemish higher education institution has its own procedures, opening and closing dates for applications" and "In general, applications at Flemish higher education institutions open around November-December." The late-October enrolment cut-off is a matter for the Flemish higher education codex rather than for this portal, and it is not confirmed here. The practical point stands: international applicants who need a diploma equivalence or a visa are given much earlier deadlines, so do not plan around a late date.

  Source

English-taught bachelors

Limited. Belgium teaches its bachelor's degrees overwhelmingly in Dutch (Flanders) or French (Wallonia and Brussels), and Flemish legislation restricts how much of a bachelor programme may be taught in another language. A realistic expectation is a few dozen fully English-taught bachelor programmes nationwide, concentrated in business, international relations and some university-college programmes. The English-taught offer widens dramatically at master's level. No official count of English-taught bachelor programmes is confirmed here.

Proving your English

Study in Flanders states that English at level B2 is required for most bachelor's and master's programmes, which it puts at IELTS 6.0 overall or TOEFL iBT 72-94 (paper 510-559), with C1 for some specialised programmes. Institutions decide individually whether an IB Diploma taught in English counts as proof - many accept IB English A or B at a specified grade, but you must confirm this with the institution.

Local language needed?

Not for English-taught programmes

• You can complete an English-taught programme without Dutch or French, but daily life, student jobs and internships will be much easier with the local language. Brussels functions in French first, with Dutch and English widely spoken.
• Many Flemish universities offer free or cheap Dutch courses to their international students; take one in the first year.
• If you are open to studying in French, the offer in Wallonia and Brussels is enormous and the tuition is very low. That is a genuine option for an IB student who took French B HL.

Tuition, EU/EEA

Flanders: 1,181.40 EUR for a full-time year of 60 credits in 2026/27 (University of Antwerp publishes this as 305.40 EUR fixed plus 14.60 EUR per credit; Study in Flanders gives the same 1,181.40 EUR figure for EEA nationals). French-speaking Belgium: a four-tier means-tested scale from 2026/27 - 0 EUR for grant holders, 374 EUR for students of modest means, 835 EUR for the intermediate category and 1,194 EUR at the full rate. (2026/27)

Tuition, non-EU

Flanders: 5,300-12,000 EUR per year for most programmes, and 8,800-25,000 EUR at schools of arts (Study in Flanders). At the University of Antwerp the increased rate is 1,000 EUR plus 55 EUR per credit, i.e. 4,300 EUR for 60 credits. KU Leuven's increased tuition fee for non-EEA citizens was reported as 9,493.90 EUR for 60 credits in 2026-2027. (2026/27)

Application fee

Varies by institution; several Flemish universities charge non-EEA applicants an application fee. No single national figure is confirmed here; check with the university.

Living costs

800-1,000 EUR per month in Flanders, of which accommodation is 450-600 EUR. Brussels is more expensive than Leuven, Ghent or Antwerp. (Year not stated on the source page; figures as published in September 2026)

• The French-speaking community's move to a means-tested minerval in 2026/27 is new. What you pay depends on submitting a student grant application to the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (allocations-etudes.cfwb.be) - if you do not apply, expect to be charged the full rate.
• Fees in Flanders are built from a fixed component plus a per-credit component, so a part-year or reduced study programme costs less.

Funding you could actually get

• Danish SU can follow you here if you can claim it (Danish citizens, or EU/EEA citizens with equal status under EU rules) and meet the ties-to-Denmark requirement. The programme must be SU-approved, and outside the Nordics SU is capped at four years (48 klip). Apply to Uddannelses- og Forskningsstyrelsen before you leave. If you cannot claim SU, look first at your own country's student finance: several EU/EEA systems fund a full degree in another country.
• Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles study grant (allocation d'etudes): applying is what determines which of the four minerval tiers you pay, so submit the application at allocations-etudes.cfwb.be even if you expect to pay the full rate.
• Flemish study grant (studietoelage) is available to students who meet Flemish residence and means conditions; a student newly arrived from Denmark will usually not qualify in year one.
• Institutional scholarships are limited at bachelor level in Belgium and are mostly aimed at non-EEA students or at master's level.
• Student jobs: Belgium's student contract (jobstudent) carries reduced social contributions for up to 650 hours a year (since 1 January 2025), which makes part-time work worthwhile. Check your remaining hours on studentatwork.be.

Residency

As an EU citizen you do not need a visa. You must, however, register with the commune (gemeente / commune) of your Belgian address within the first months of your stay, showing your passport or ID card, proof of enrolment, proof of sufficient means and health cover. The commune issues a residence document and a national register number, which you need for a bank account, a phone contract and a student job. Non-EU students need a student visa (type D) obtained before travelling and must register with the commune on arrival.

Working

As an EU citizen you may work in Belgium without a work permit. Under the student job contract (jobstudent) you pay reduced social contributions (2.71% instead of 13.07%) for up to 650 hours a year, a package that has applied since 1 January 2025 (Student@work, the federal service). Non-EU students holding a student residence permit may work a limited number of hours during term and full time in holidays, subject to their permit conditions; check that limit with the university.

Housing

Much easier than the Netherlands or Ireland, but not effortless in Leuven, Ghent and Brussels. Belgian student rooms are called kot (Flanders) or kot/chambre (French-speaking) and are usually rented from private landlords on a ten- or twelve-month contract, with university housing services running their own listings. Start looking in spring for September, and expect 450-600 EUR a month per Study in Flanders. Brussels has more supply than Leuven but a wider quality range; Ghent and Antwerp are comfortable student cities with real turnover in the market. University housing offices publish vetted listings and are the safest place to start.

Healthcare

Bring your European Health Insurance Card. If you stay for a full degree, Belgium will normally expect you to join a Belgian health insurance fund (mutualité / ziekenfonds) - registration is cheap, sometimes free for students, and it is what makes reimbursement of GP and hospital costs work in practice. Universities usually have a designated fund they work with and will help you sign up during enrolment. Non-EU students must show proof of health cover to get their residence permit.

Your IB is still a foreign qualification here, so the IB entry rules still apply to you.