Studying in French-speaking Belgium: registration fees

In some cases, non-European students may be exempted from paying additional contribution. At that point, they will merely need to pay the annual tuition fees of €835. However, certain conditions must be met. 

Nationals of countries outside the European Union are NOT affected by the additional contribution if they meet at least one of the following conditions:

• they have a settlement permit or have acquired long-term resident status;
• they are considered a refugee, stateless person or person eligible for subsidiary or temporary protection, or have an asylum application that has not yet been decided;
• they are authorised to stay in Belgium for more than three months and to pursue a genuine and effective professional activity or receive replacement income;
• be taken into care or maintained by public social welfare centres, in a home belonging to them or in a home to which they have been entrusted;
• have as father, mother, legal guardian, spouse or legal cohabitant a person who is a national of a Member State of the European Union or who fulfils one of the conditions referred to in 1° to 4° above;
• meet the conditions set out in Article 105, § 2, of the Landscape Decree, namely:
  1. receive an allowance granted by the study allowance service of the French Community
  2. hold a scholarship certificate issued by the general administration of Development Cooperation
• have a residence permit.

Specific cases aplly to students enrrolling in Colleges, Art colleges and Universities. The following are not affected by additional fees: 

• nationals of a country on the UN's LDC list (Least Developed Countries); this list is currently included in Annex 1 of circular 2025-001 published by the ARES;
• students enrolled at a university (! and therefore not in a Haute Ecole or Ecole Supérieure de Arts) who are nationals of a country not included in the LDC list referred to in 1° and whose list is drawn up by the ARES: this list is currently included in annexes 2 and 3 of circular 2025-001 published by the ARES;
• students holding a certificate of upper secondary education issued by a full secondary education establishment or an establishment for social promotion organised or subsidised by the French Community at the end of two years of schooling in education organised or subsidised by the French Community;
• students enrolled in a postgraduate study programme;
• students enrolled in an AESS programme, or any Master's programme in teaching that replaces it;
• recipients of a grant awarded by Wallonia-Bruxelles International. 
• For universities only, be a national of a country listed in Annexes 1 to 3 of ARES Circular No. 2025-001 of 18 February 2025.