10 pc of Flemish professors fails ‘absurd’ English language test

This is either because they failed the test, or because they refused to take part in it.

Professors at Flemish universities or in higher education giving their classes in English, need to have an English language certificate to prove they master the language.

This new rule was imposed by the Flemish government with the deadline having been set at 1 February 2015.

It now turns out that almost 1 in 10 teachers either failed the test or refused to take part in it. This normally implies that they can no longer teach in English.

“We could have avoided a lot of misery”

Professors that did pass the test, have expressed their disbelief about the obligation. “They find this absurd”, says Kristiaan Versluys, a Professor in American Language at Ghent University. “It would have been better to exempt those that had been teaching in English for years to everybody’s satisfaction. This would have avoided a lot of ‘misery’ (miserie, red).”