The government of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation has finally agreed to allow UMons to offer a master’s degree in medicine and for UNamur to offer a specialized master’s degree in general medicine. This decision was reached following several weeks of heated debate and political maneuvering between the PS and MR parties. The dispute began in February when the Minister of Higher Education Valérie Glatigny (MR) refused authorization for the two courses. The controversy escalated between the socialists and French-speaking liberals, with the president of the PS, Paul Magnette, threatening to pass a text authorizing the creation of the courses via an alternative majority.
However, an agreement was eventually reached between the governments of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, UMons, and UNamur. UMons will become the second university in Wallonia to offer a full course in medicine following ULiège, while UNamur will have its specialized master’s degree to fight once morest the shortage of general practitioners in the province of Namur.
UMons will be able to develop its Masters under the conditions issued by the MR, without obtaining additional funding. Any break in the collaboration between UMons and the Erasme hospital (ULB-Brussels) will cancel the newly obtained accreditation. The same will happen if UMons tries to obtain the recognition of a new university hospital in the Mons region.
It is worth noting that an evaluation of these courses will be carried out in five years, and the government has also decided to freeze the current accreditation process to reform it.
UMons will therefore be able to offer its master’s degree in medicine and UNamur its specialized master’s degree in general medicine. An agreement was reached on Saturday within the government of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, following several weeks of controversy and political bodybuilding which saw the PS and the MR clash violently on this issue. A quarrel between socialists and liberals born following the announcement of refusal on these two authorizations made by the Minister of Higher Education Valérie Glatigny (MR) in Freeat the beginning of February.
In recent days, the case was the subject of an escalation between socialists and French-speaking liberals. The president of the PS, Paul Magnette having even announced that he was ready to pass a text authorizing the creation of these two masters, via an alternative majority, in order to circumvent the liberal refusal. The Committed, in the opposition being willing to vote with the PS and Écolo, both in the majority alongside the MR. The threats went far, since there was even talk of doing without the MR within the French-speaking majority but also within the Walloon government.
This is not worth a crisis
An agreement that might have been reached earlier
In the end, the solution did not come from the presidents of the PS and the MR joined in the discussions by their ecological counterpart, Jean-Marc Nollet. It is under the impetus, it seems, of the Minister-President of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, Pierre-Yves Jeholet, that the government itself agreed. Jeholet called a meeting of his ministers on Saturday. He gave them the proposed agreement, almost the same as two weeks ago and they therefore agreed following consulting their respective presidents. The same Jeholet had decided, at the beginning of the week, to postpone the point which was on the government’s agenda in view of the threats issued by Magnette of the establishment of an alternative majority.
The benefits of a political clash
In the end, UMons will therefore become the second university to offer a full course in medicine in Wallonia, following ULiège – UCL also offers the full course, but its faculty of medicine is located in Woluwe-Saint-Lambert in the Region. Brussels. As for the UNamur, which feared being a collateral victim of the Mons and intra-Hénuère controversy, it will have its specialization master’s degree, which aims to fight once morest the shortage of general practitioners in the province of Namur.
For UMons, the conditions issued by the MR are therefore met. UMons will be able to develop its Masters but without obtaining additional funding. This one would have been taken in the other universities offering the master’s degree in medicine, since the creation of this course in Mons does not have the consequences of seeing the number of Inami numbers available and therefore of students, revised upwards. It should also be noted that in the event of a break in the collaboration between UMons and the Erasme hospital (ULB-Brussels), the newly obtained accreditation will be cancelled. Same thing if the UMons tries to obtain the recognition of a new university hospital in the Mons region.
Agreement on the creation of Masters in medicine: politicians react
We should also specify that an evaluation of these two new courses will be carried out in five years and that the government has also decided to freeze the current accreditation process in order to reform it.
In a political clash that lasted several weeks, an agreement has finally been reached between the government of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, UMons and UNamur over the creation of Masters in medicine. This agreement will allow UMons to offer its Master’s degree in medicine while UNamur will offer its specialized Master’s degree in general medicine. Although the issue caused controversy and political tension, it has ultimately resulted in a positive outcome for both universities and the healthcare industry in the region. The agreement also involves the evaluation of the courses within five years and the freezing of the current accreditation process for reformful measures. With this resolution, we can now hope for a better future for medical education and more graduated medical professionals serving the region.
