Academic Term - Belgium

Belgium

In Belgium, kindergarten, elementary and secondary schools begin on September 1 and end on June 30.

Schools also take breaks/holidays:

• Autumn break: One week at the start of November
• Christmas break Two weeks around Christmas and New Year
• Carnival break One week in February.
• Easter break Two weeks around Easter.
• Summer break is always the break from the 1st of July until the 31st of August
• Ascension break Thursday and Friday in early May to mid June
• Labor Day May 1
• Whitsun Monday in mid May to late June
• Armistice Day November 11

Universities and colleges in Belgium use the semester system, dividing the academic year in two equal parts of thirteen weeks of courses. Universities start the first semester in the third week of September, and no 'autumn break'. Colleges start one week earlier, in the second week of September, giving them right to the 'autumn break' of one week. After 13 weeks of courses the 'Christmas break' starts (around December 20), which is used to study for the 3–4 weeks of examinations in January.

After these examinations the universities have one week of vacation, the so-called 'semestrial vacation', while the colleges start the classes of the second semester at the end of January, immediately after the examinations, which week they reclaim with the 'spring break' at the end of February, which the universities do not have. The universities start the second semester in the beginning of February.

Both universities and colleges have the 'Easter break', which again is used to study for the examinations in June. After Easter, the classes start again until the end of May, followed by four weeks of examinations in June, after which three months of vacation is given. The students who failed in passing some of the courses in their curriculum in January and June, the so-called 'first session', have to do the examinations again in the second session at the end of August.