Linguistic Law in Higher Education in Belgium: New Trends for Bilingual Education, but Which One?

Abstract

This chapter analyses whether a legal basis for the creation of a bilingual education in universities within Community education law adopted by the French and Flemish Communities exists or is at least constitutionally or legally possible. In order to understand the Belgian context well, the first section of the chapter is devoted to the origins of this monolingual system of education in a multilingual state. The second section offers, from a constitutional point of view, a presentation of the share of competences in education and language use in Belgium as a legal basis for monolingual higher education. The third section discusses the reception of the Europeanisation of education as a factor of change of the rules of language use in universities. The last section concludes by highlighting the options for creating a bilingual higher education. Keywords:Belgium; bilingual higher education; linguistic law