Language proficiency has been a major issue for over 20 years within the law faculty, aware of the importance in this modern world of learning a language other than French.
Saint-Louis University offers bilingual programmes in law, spread out over the three years of courses. Unique in the academic landscape of French-speaking Belgium, two courses of study are available: either French / English or French / Dutch or even trilingual (in the latter case, the student adds, from the second year, some courses of the other Germanic language). The common principle to these formulas is to replace some of the courses in French by their equivalent in Dutch and / or English. (For details, refer to the presentation of the programmes on the “Multilingual degrees” page)
Students who wish to remain in the unilingual course of study also receive quality language teaching. Language courses and courses taught in foreign languages are an integral part of their programme, as they must follow a language course during the first year and a legal language course in the second year, while in the third year, students are under the obligation to follow a course in Dutch or English.
Languages in the unilingual option
In first year, students follow an English course or a Dutch course for two hours per week over the entire year. These courses are taught to small groups of students and aim to develop reading and listening comprehension skills and to encourage oral expression.
To determine the student’s language level, a test is carried out during the first week of the academic year. It consists of a translation exercise and the summarisation of a text.
Students who score 16/20 on this test have satisfied the language requirement and are exempted from following a language course. The grade obtained will be added to the student’s marks for the year during the academic jury review in June.
Students who score between 12 and 16/20 must improve their language skills and, hence, follow an advanced language course.
Students who score less than 12/20 have to follow the standard language course.
In second year, students follow a 2 hour per week legal English or legal Dutch course over the entire year. These courses are taught in the target language and involve the study of legal vocabulary and expressions as well as the reading of legal texts. They aim to train students to consult and make use of legal documentation in the studied language.
In third year, all students in the unilingual programme must follow a course taught in either Dutch or in English.
Languages in the multilingual programmes
In either English or Dutch, students follow some of the law programme’s courses that are equivalent to the courses taught in French in the unilingual programme.
This measure does not result in an increase in the total number of course hours. Immersion in the chosen language is gradual: the number of courses followed in English or in Dutch increases gradually throughout the programme.
To determine a student’s language level, a test is carried out during the first week of the academic year. Il consists of a translation exercise and the summarisation of a text.
Students who score over 14/20 on this test are allowed to enrol in the bilingual programmes and are exempted from following a language course. The grade obtained will be added to the student’s grades for the year during the academic jury review in June.
Students who score between 12/20 and 14/20 are allowed to enrol in the bilingual programmes but must improve their language skills and, hence, follow an advanced language course.
Students who score less than 12/20 are allowed to enrol in the bilingual programmes but have to follow the standard language course.
Until the beginning of February in their first year, students have the opportunity to switch to the unilingual programme in case of persistent difficulties.
For the French-Dutch option, students follow some of their courses at the KU Leuven-Campus Brussel, rue d’Assaut (a 10-minute walk from Saint-Louis University).
For the French-English option, all courses are taught at Saint-Louis University.
Teaching profile