The Flemish Interuniversity Council (VLIR) warns in a new press release about the serious impact of the 2026 budget on universities and students. According to VLIR, both the quality and accessibility of higher education are now at risk.
Cuts to universities – and now to students – threaten to pull the rug from under Flanders’ knowledge economy
Last Friday, the Flemish Government approved the programme decree accompanying the 2026 budget and, in a separate decree, gave the green light for a drastic reform of student grants. The figures underlying these decisions are deeply worrying: a reduction of €32.8 million for higher education and €14.5 million for research. In addition, students will be directly affected by cuts of €33.8 million to study grants. This is particularly alarming given the needs of our knowledge-driven economy.
The programme decree foresees a structural reduction of €46.3 million in the core funding of universities and universities of applied sciences from next year onwards. This comes through the abolition of Brussels-related funds (€10.6 million), a sharp cut in funding for non-EEA students (€30.7 million), and the termination of management agreements with the Institute of Development Policy (IOB) at the University of Antwerp and the Institute for European Studies (IES) at the VUB (a total of €5 million).
Of this amount, €34.9 million will fall on universities – a particularly heavy burden that could eventually result in the loss of up to 350 full-time positions.
“Within the education budget, universities are being hit disproportionately hard,” says Bernard Vanheusden, Chair of the Flemish Interuniversity Council (VLIR). “On top of that, the cuts mainly affect Brussels-based institutions. We have therefore decided to share the impact in solidarity, to help make the situation at least somewhat bearable for our colleagues in Brussels.”
According to the Flemish Union of Students (VVS), the reform of student grants could cause up to 20,000 students to lose their entitlement to financial support. This would make access to university education even more difficult—at a time when all Flemish policymakers agree that we must remain internationally competitive, and that knowledge is still the only natural resource our region possesses.
Beyond the cuts to higher education funding, universities will also face a reduction of €14.5 million in the budget for fundamental scientific research. Yet the government’s own coalition agreement explicitly describes such research as an essential foundation for innovation and a source of prosperity and wellbeing.
The long-standing structural underfunding of our universities was recently made clear in the sector report on higher education finances and staffing, published by the College of Government Commissioners. The additional cuts in 2026 are of such magnitude that universities feel compelled to raise tuition fees by €150 per student from the academic year 2026–2027 onwards. They have made it clear, however, that they wish to spare students who are close to qualifying for a grant as much as possible.
The current cost of education is no longer fully covered, forcing universities to ask for a higher contribution from students. Moreover, as the criteria for student grants become stricter, the need for social support among students will only increase.
Over the past years, Flemish universities have consistently contributed in solidarity to successive rounds of austerity, understanding the need for structural measures to restore public finances. However, the scale, disproportionality, and limited justification of these new cuts now threaten to undermine the very foundations of our knowledge economy.
“They run counter to the innovation ambitions set out in the Flemish Coalition Agreement 2024–2029 and make the government’s 1% target for public investment in research and development increasingly unrealistic. They are also difficult to reconcile with the Flemish Government’s emphasis on competitiveness and productivity, as highlighted in former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s influential report. Investment in higher education is, after all, one of the most productive forms of investment there is,” says Koen Verlaeckt, Secretary-General of VLIR.
Flemish universities call on the Flemish Government to reverse this downward trend during the remaining years of this parliamentary term and to ensure that they can continue to play their full role as engines of prosperity and wellbeing. They also urge the government to safeguard universities from further cuts in the upcoming federal budget negotiations.