Veterinary Education in Belgium: An entrance exam at the end of the first year is expected to put an end to the “Belgian El Dorado”

In response to the chronic increase in the number of veterinary medicine students in Belgium, Belgian Minister of Higher Education Jean-Claude Marcourt announced yesterday the introduction of a competitive exam at the end of the first year (known as BAC 1). Following medicine and dentistry in 2015, this is the third program to be subject to a selection process at the end of the first year. The goal is to reduce the number of veterinary students entering Master’s 1 (the fourth year of the program), which is currently offered exclusively by the University of Liège (ULg). This screening process is expected to take effect next year.   From the 2016–2017 academic year onward, studying veterinary science in Belgium will no longer necessarily be an attractive option for French students. This is because, under the solution adopted to address the overcrowding of students in this program—both residents and international students—only 250 of them will be able to continue their studies in the second year of the bachelor’s program (BAC 2) next year. This problem is not new for Belgium. The appeal of its veterinary program—even beyond its borders—led to the introduction of an entrance exam in 2003, a solution that was ultimately abandoned in favor of a quota system which, since 2006, has limited access for non-resident students. Today, fearing it will no longer meet the criteria of the European Association of Veterinary Education Institutions (AEEEV), the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Liège has taken steps to implement an entrance exam that will limit the number of enrollments each year. It is true that it currently enrolls some 400 first-year master’s students, while its facilities and faculty resources are designed for only 250, which undermines the quality of the education being dispensed, especially clinical training. Furthermore, it is the only one among the approximately 100 veterinary medicine faculties in Europe that does not have a student selection process. Finally, the situation is urgent, as the AEEEV’s next visit to Liège is scheduled for 2017. For non-residents, particularly French students, this system amounts to a two-step selection process: they will still be subject to the 20% quota for first-year enrollment, followed by a random lottery if the quota is exceeded, and they will also have to take the new entrance exam at the end of their first year of veterinary school. Those who fail, however, will retain the credits they have earned and will be able to switch to other science programs. Among the approximately 1,000 veterinary students currently in their first year at the country’s various French-speaking universities (UNamur, ULB, UCL, and ULg), many say they support the competitive exam at the end of BAC 1. This is not the case for the Federation of Francophone Students (FEF), which is fiercely opposed to any form of selection and laments that its alternative solutions were not adopted. In particular, it had proposed strengthening practical training through paid internships with practising veterinarians, accompanied by appropriate educational supervision, in order to alleviate the capacity constraints at the Liège veterinary clinic. The next step in this process will be the discussion and vote on the bill in the Parliament of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. The FEF is already calling on lawmakers to reject the minister’s proposal. Once adopted, the measure will be implemented for four years before being evaluated.