The Belgian Nuclear higher Education Network: the evolution of an academic programme in nuclear engineering

The master-after-master in nuclear engineering provided by the Belgian Nuclear higher Education Network (BNEN) is a one-year, 60 ECTS programme that was created in close collaboration with representatives of academia, research centres, industry and other nuclear stakeholders. The BNEN consortium combines the expertise of six Belgian universities and SCK•CEN, the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre, which participates through its Academy for Nuclear Science and Technology. Due to its modular programme, BNEN is accessible for both full-time students (mainly young engineering graduates) as well as young professionals already employed in the nuclear industry. The programme is offered in English to facilitate the participation of international students. In 2012, in the framework of an official accreditation process all aspects of the BNEN programme were audited by an international visitation panel. The most important outcome of this process is the current reform of the academic programme, which will be implemented in the academic year 2014-2015, taking into account the recommendations by the visitation panel. In this paper, the history of the BNEN programme will be discussed, the new BNEN programme will be presented as well as the process that has led to its implementation.