NARIC guide on Higher Education Systems in the European Union

Legislative body on matters of grants, organisation of education,
status of the teaching staff and inspection of higher education.
Responsible for the general control in respect in legislative norms.
Responsible for the appointment of the teaching staff and for the Community’s official education policy.
Responsible for validating non-university higher education qualifications and university education qualifications
sanctioned by legal degrees (see glossary).
The permanent higher education council
Plays a consultative role regarding problems relating to two or more categories of higher education.
The higher sectoral councils
For each category (field of studies) of non-university higher education, there is a higher education council with a consultative
power (examination of educational reform proposals, curricula content, etc.).
The French-speaking inter-university council (CIUF)
A consultative body for French-speaking universities concerning problems relating to university education. The CIUF also
organises consultation between the French-speaking university institutions.
The validation board
Validates university qualifications awarded in disciplines organised at legal degree level (see glossary).
I.1. Higher education establishments
Higher education is divided as follows:
A — non-university higher education, which comes in two forms:
(i) short-course education (type court);
(ii) long-course education (type long);
NB: Long-course higher education is, according to the law, the same as university level. The difference between this type of
education and university education, therefore, lies in the status of the establishments: in contrast to universities, longcourse
higher education establishments have no accreditation in the area of basic research.
B — university higher education;
C — other higher education.
I.1.1. Non-university higher education
Short-course education
Short-course higher education is intended to train middle management capable of carrying out or supervising the execution of
highly scientific or technical tasks. The training is practical and directly based on the
relevant profession.
Long-course education