The Flemish universities and university colleges have jointly established an internationalisation agency for higher education, ‘Flamenco’. The Flemish Rector’s conference (VL.I.R.) and the Conference of university colleges (VLHORA) are at the beginning of an integration process that is scheduled to be completed in 2012.  A symbolic milestone of this joint effort was set in May 2008, when both organisations moved to a common office located in the centre of Brussels.

Within this new duo-organisation, the internationalisation officers are the first to join their forces in a separate agency for mobility and international co-operation in higher education that goes by the name of ‘Flamenco’. ‘Flamenco’, meaning ‘Fleming’ in Spanish, refers at the same time to the base of the agency as to its international outlook. Flamenco aims to foster the further internationalisation of the HE institutions in Flanders by mobility and co-operation, and to position Flemish Higher education in Europe and worldwide. An example of the activities that the new-born agency will focus on is the follow-up of European internationalisation policy and the wide dissemination of this knowledge among institutions. As part of this effort, a series of information meetings on European policy will be organised in 2008-2009. Furthermore, the agency aims at carrying out some highly necessary data collection and research.

From 2009 on, the website ‘Study-in-Flanders’ containing a database of all English-taught programmes in Flanders will also be hosted by Flamenco.

VLIR Website