Graduate
The graduate is an originally state, later academic degree , which is held at Belgian universities (Dutch hogescholen , French hautes écoles ), art schools (Dutch kunsthogescholen , French écoles supérieures des arts ) and the state naval college HZS / ESN, which teaches the officers of the merchant navyafter three to four years of professional or artistic studies in pedagogical, socio-pedagogical, alternative medicine, economics, agronomic, technical, artistic and maritime fields. Graduates have the degree Gegradueerde (Dutch) or Gradué (e) en ... (French) with the respective course name. Although it is a non-university academic degree, graduates have direct access to university master’s courses in the same subject. The graduate has meanwhile been given the newly created Bachelor's degree in the course of the Bologna Processreplaced. The old academic degrees of the Graduate type are legally assigned to the corresponding Bachelor degrees and are on an equal footing with them.
Gradué , Gradué principal and Premier Gradué are also official designations for administrative officials of level B (corresponding to the higher service ) in the French-speaking part of Belgium .
In France there is also the Gradué en Ingénierie degree , which is awarded by polytechnic universities after a 4-year university course.