Belgian grading system
In Belgium, university courses are marked out of 20 in both the Flemish and the French-speaking communities, and 10 is the lowest pass.
Example · Credit-weighted average of 3 courses
Pass
A pass. 10 is the lowest pass.
3 courses, 15 credits. Your institution’s own rules on rounding or cutting off decimals decide the grade on your record.
Flemish university grades: 0 to 20
Courses at universities and university colleges in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking community. Course marks are whole numbers out of 20; the tolerance band follows KU Leuven's rules for bachelor's and similar programmes.
| Grade | Meaning | Pass? |
|---|---|---|
| 10–20 | pass | Pass |
| 8–9 | fail that can sometimes be tolerated | Fail |
| 0–7 | fail | Fail |
French-speaking university grades: 0 to 20
Courses and degree averages at universities and colleges in Wallonia and Brussels, the French-speaking community. Each course passes at 10 out of 20; the honours (mentions) are given on the average over the whole bachelor's or master's programme, and some faculties set their own thresholds.
| Grade | On the transcript | Meaning | Pass? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18–20 | la plus grande distinction | highest distinction | Pass |
| 16–18 | grande distinction | high distinction | Pass |
| 14–16 | distinction | Pass | |
| 12–14 | satisfaction | pass with merit | Pass |
| 10–12 | sans mention | pass | Pass |
| 0–10 | échec | fail | Fail |
Belgian grades and a US GPA
This page gives no US equivalents for Belgian grades: we found no table for them on Wikipedia or from an official source, and we do not make one up. A US university reads a foreign transcript itself or through the credential evaluation service it names, and its conversion is the one that counts.
Send your grades as they are, with the scale above. When a form asks for your average, give it on your own scale and say which scale it is: the converter’s average does exactly that, weighted by credits when you enter them.
What to know about grades in Belgium
- Education is run separately by the Flemish and French-speaking communities, so degree honours and their thresholds differ between them and between universities.
- At KU Leuven a degree is awarded cum laude for a weighted average of at least 68%, magna cum laude from 77%, summa cum laude from 85%, and with the congratulations of the examination committee from 90%.
- At KU Leuven a mark of 8 or 9 out of 20 can be covered with a tolerance credit in bachelor's programmes, but the course then earns no credits.
- A mark above 16 out of 20 is considered very good, and 19 or 20 is very rare.
- Secondary schools mostly report marks as percentages, with 50% as the usual pass mark.
Sources: Wikipedia, Academic grading in Belgium; Wikipedia, Grading systems by country (Belgium); KU Leuven, Grading system.