Higher education institutes (HEIs)

Belgium helps to fund several European HEIs by awarding subsidies and awarding scholarships to Belgian researchers.

For instance, the College of Europe founded in Bruges in 1950 sets out to provide a bilingual (French-English) post-university education, organise research, scientific colloquia and training seminars, and engage in other European activities aimed at promoting European integration.

Belgium is also a founder member of the European University Institute (EUI), over which it presided between 1 March 2009 and 31 December 2009). The EUI dispenses top-level scientific and cultural training and conducts research in a European perspective. It is divided into four departments, covering the following human and social sciences: history and civilisation, law, economics and the political and social sciences.