The Wallonia-Brussels Federation government has reached an agreement on the security clearance file following weeks of tension and negotiations. The government has granted the 57 authorizations, including those for the Masters in Medicine at UMons and the University of Namur, but additional measures have been put in place. The government plans to ensure good management of public funds and accountability of institutions by implementing extra measures. For habilitations in medical sciences, an identical coefficient will be applied to all students to prevent overfunding of the master’s degree at UMons. The authorization system will undergo reform, including the blocking of financing of any new authorization for three years. The moratorium on authorizations will apply until the end of the legislature, and no new training offer will be authorized before the start of the 2025-2026 academic year. The masters in medicine from the universities of Mons and Namur had been under threat last week, but this has been resolved.
After several weeks of negotiations and tensions, the government of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation finally reached an agreement on the security clearance file this Saturday evening. The 57 authorizations requested, therefore including those for the Masters in Medicine at UMons and the University of Namur, are granted but are accompanied by a series of additional measures.
“In order to meet the objectives of good management of public funds and accountability of institutions, a series of additional measures are planned,” the government said in a press release.
For habilitations in medical sciences, “in order to avoid overfunding of the master’s organized as a joint degree between ULB/UMons to the detriment of other courses and to ensure equity between all medical students, an identical coefficient will be applied to all students”, specifies the executive. In other words, UMons will not benefit from additional funding for its master’s degree in medicine and the other faculties of the Federation will not be funded.
An assessment of the appropriateness of the two controversial authorizations will also take place following 5 years. It will include an independent study to analyze whether there is a link between the creation of masters and the installation of general practitioners in areas with shortages and the contribution of cohabilitation for student accessibility.
In addition, the authorization relating to a master’s degree in medicine in joint degree between the ULB and the UMons will be canceled in the event of a rupture of collaboration with the Erasmus university hospital or in the event of a request from the academic authorities to recognition of a new university hospital.
The government has also planned to reform the authorization system, in particular with the blocking of the financing of any new authorization for 3 years, “so as to make establishments responsible”.
Finally, “a moratorium on authorizations will apply until the end of the legislature. No new training offer will be authorized before the start of the 2025-2026 academic year”, the objective being “to get out of a dynamic of annual review of the training offer which leads to one-upmanship.”
The authorizations dossier has put the FWB government under great tension following the threat last week from the president of the PS, Paul Magnette, to constitute an alternative majority with Les Engagés to validate the masters in medicine from the universities of Mons and Namur if the MR continued to oppose it.
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After weeks of negotiations and tensions, the Wallonia-Brussels Federation government has finally reached an agreement on the security clearance file. With the 57 authorizations granted, including those for Masters in Medicine at UMons and the University of Namur, additional measures have been put in place for the good management of public funds and accountability of institutions. These measures include the assessment of the appropriateness of the two controversial authorizations following five years and the cancellation of authorization in the event of a rupture in collaboration or recognition of a new university hospital. Additionally, the authorization system will be reformed, and a moratorium on authorizations will apply until the end of the legislature. These actions aim to get out of a dynamic of annual review of the training offer, which leads to one-upmanship. With tensions eased, the government can now focus on delivering quality education to its students.
