EU Law Blog

Some of the Member States are reluctant to welcome students from other Member States. Belgium now plans to limit the number of students from outside Belgium in its universities (see also the euractiv story here). In particular large numbers of French students have moved to Belgium to study medicine there:

The move comes as French students in particular come to Belgium to take advantage of easier access to medical studies and receive cheaper education in Belgium in their own language, reports Le Monde.

And another recent article says that Austria has similar issues:

Austria will cap the number of foreign students at its universities… in a bid to restrict German access to its medical faculties, despite a recent EU court ruling which declared earlier restrictions illegal.

The ECJ’s decision last year is here.

It’s worth noting that in the EU the Member States are prohibited from charging higher levels of tuition to students from other Member States than they charge to their own citizens (although they are permitted to charge higher tuition fees to students from outside the EU).

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