Gaping laboratory gap filled with new graduate

Where do you turn if you love working in the lab but have no appetite for mountains of theory? For a long time, there was no place in Flanders for this preference. ‘But there was huge demand from the laboratory sector for additional workers’, says Pieterjan De Feyter, programme director at UCLL University of Applied Sciences in Leuven. Together with Els Van Eyken (head of the Chemistry Cluster programme, AP University of Applied Sciences Antwerp) and Dirk Verlinde (programme coordinator, HOGENT), considerable work has gone into developing the graduate programme in laboratory assistance, which has been offered at the three universities of applied sciences in Antwerp, Ghent and Leuven since September 2025.

‘We place a strong emphasis on very broad knowledge of laboratory equipment’

Dirk Verlinde, HOGENT

Threshold package

That is partly down to the professional field, Verlinde explains. ‘But the chemical federation essenscia also pushed hard to get this programme off the ground.’ Van Eyken adds that the graduate programme has arrived at just the right moment. ‘Secondary education is undergoing a renewal, whereby students from vocationally-oriented tracks [the former vocational education, ed.] can progress directly to graduate programmes after their sixth year.’

‘Many students get stuck on the heavier theory’

Pieterjan De Feyter, UCLL

In addition, a threshold package has now been introduced in professional and academic bachelor’s programmes, comparable to the Dutch binding study advice (BSA). For students who have not accumulated all their credits from the first year within two years and are therefore not permitted to continue their studies, a graduate programme such as this offers a sound alternative. ‘That is because there are many students who enjoy the hands-on side of laboratory work but get stuck on the heavier theory’, De Feyter continues. ‘Laboratory assistance is the only programme at graduate level that trains people to work in a lab; we have no direct competitors.’

There is a strong connection with the professional field. ‘It is very practice-oriented’, says Verlinde. ‘At least a third of study time is devoted to workplace learning — gaining practical experience in the field through extended placements, guest lectures, company visits, and so on.’

Not deep, but broad

Shaping the programme was quite a challenge, according to Verlinde. ‘That is due to the high diversity of students. There are school-leavers straight from secondary education, students from vocationally-oriented tracks, and we now also serve as a safety net for bachelor’s students.’ Some students therefore bring little prior knowledge, whilst others bring a great deal. ‘You combine theory and laboratory work so that students quickly acquire practical knowledge, supplemented with enough theory to understand what they are doing. It does not go deep, but it is very broad — from basic chemistry through to biochemistry, microbiology and biotechnology.’

‘The goals and approach are the same, but the route to get there differs’

Els Van Eyken, AP University of Applied Sciences

That means graduates can end up working in a vast range of different laboratories. De Feyter: ‘You may not be carrying out in-depth analyses, but you will have mastered all the practical procedures and equipment.’ The programme rests on three pillars, Van Eyken explains. ‘Working safely and accurately, delivering reliable results, and recording what you do in a transparent manner. These things should become second nature.’

‘Our students are trained to be practitioners’, says Verlinde. ‘We place a strong emphasis on safety, but also on a very broad knowledge of laboratory equipment. So if you put them in any laboratory whatsoever, they can get up to speed quickly. Yes, there is a great deal of thinking involved, but there are also plenty of routine tasks — repetitive work that bachelor’s and master’s graduates are reluctant to do, but which our students will tackle without a second thought.’ According to De Feyter, this creates a pleasing synergy between academia and practice.

Competition

Because the programme was developed by three different universities of applied sciences, there are some differences in emphasis here and there. ‘The goals and approach are the same, but the route to get there differs’, says Van Eyken. The port area around Antwerp is naturally a key focus for AP, for instance, whilst the area around UCLL is home primarily to research laboratories, and the Ghent region places greater emphasis on analytical labs. Because the universities of applied sciences are geographically spread, there is no direct competition between them, meaning they can discuss virtually everything openly and frankly.

So far, the programme has made a successful start at all three universities of applied sciences, with between 130 and 180 students enrolled. That is also immediately a bottleneck, says De Feyter with a laugh. ‘We are actively looking for companies that have places available for all our students to fulfil their one-third workplace learning requirement.’ It is an enormous increase in student numbers, Verlinde also notes, driven in particular by the various entry routes that are now possible. Van Eyken concludes: ‘You might expect this to be quite a niche programme. We knew there was a gap, but we could never have predicted that the group would be this large.’