Credit: Ministry of Higher Education and Research

On Wednesday 7 October 2020, Claude Meisch, Luxembourg's Minister of Higher Education and Research, presented to the education parliamentary committee the key figures of higher education for the 2019/2020 academic year.

Regarding financial support, 30,808 students were granted state financial aid (CEDIES) for higher education, including 18,539 resident and 12,269 non-resident students. The state granted €128.6 million of aid in the form of grants and €216.9 million in the form of loans during the last academic year.

In 2019/2020, the preferred country of study for resident students was Germany (4,650 students), followed by Luxembourg (3,846 students) and Belgium (3,248 students). The country of study which has experienced the most remarkable growth in terms of attendance by students residing in Luxembourg in recent years is the Netherlands. Regarding the field of study, economics remained the subject of choice for students. As for the level of studies, 12,709 resident students were enrolled in the first cycle leading to a bachelor, 4,866 in the second cycle leading to a master and 342 in the third cycle leading to a PhD.

The Ministry of Higher Education and Research confirmed that 6,714 students of 129 different nationalities were enrolled at the University of Luxembourg during the 2019/2020 academic year, which represents an increase of some 300 enrollments compared to the last two academic years.

Minister Claude Meisch recalled that by means of a recent amendment of the law concerning state financial aid for higher education, the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic on higher education and more specifically on the progress of students in their academic career has been taken into account. As such, the maximum period during which students enrolled in a higher education programme during the summer semester 2019/2020 and who are eligible for financial aid can benefit from this aid has been increased by a semester. In addition, the monitoring of the progress of students enrolled during the 2019/2020 academic year in an eligible undergraduate programme has been postponed for one year.

The Higher Education Minister also presented the key figures of the training courses leading to the BTS (higher technician certificate). In the 30 BTS-level courses offered in 2019/2020 in Luxembourg, there were 829 registrations.