Brussels IT School in administration: 60 African students defrauded, diplomas non-existent
The Brussels IT School, where annual tuition reached €7,500, went into administration whilst targeting almost exclusively African students. According to the administrator, no reimbursement is planned.
IT School administration: African families ruined, students without diplomas in Brussels
Sixty students were still enrolled on rue du Trône, in the heart of Brussels's European quarter, when the IT School was declared insolvent. According to RTBF Info, which investigated the case, 100 per cent of them came from Africa — from Cameroon, Senegal, Benin, Congo, Algeria, Tunisia or Morocco — and all had been required to obtain a visa to study in Belgium.
Scoth left Cameroon three years ago, at the age of 29, with the ambition of obtaining a master's degree in IT. His family pooled all their savings to finance the €7,500 annual tuition. His course has since been completed, but his diploma remains impossible to find — the private school was not recognised by the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. "I made all these efforts and sacrifices to come to Brussels, I cannot give up," he says.
Recruitment deliberately targeted at Africa
A member of the school's management, who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that Belgian students were not enrolling at the establishment: the €7,500 tuition was deemed too high for them. The school therefore turned to almost exclusively recruiting from sub-Saharan Africa and the Maghreb, conducting highly active recruitment campaigns in these regions. Scoth had noticed the situation from his arrival. "There were no Belgian students. We were all African. Deliberately, they were looking for vulnerable students," he states.
This same official attributes part of the financial difficulties to the students themselves, citing €200,000 to €300,000 in unpaid fees, and claims that over one million euros were injected by shareholders without managing to save the establishment. When questioned about the business model, he took responsibility: "I come from the business world, money is not dirty to me."
The Office of Foreigners raises the alarm
In 2025, RTBF Info obtained a document from the Office of Foreigners indicating that Belgian authorities were refusing to grant new visas to IT School students. The establishment was suspected of facilitating the irregular entry of foreign nationals into Belgian territory.
Without new visas, enrolments dried up. Without revenue, the insolvency of the Brussels headquarters brought down with it three French campuses — in Valenciennes, Amiens and Orléans — where approximately 200 additional students were enrolled, the majority of them African. According to the investigation, the school continued to collect tens of thousands of euros in deposits even as its finances were already in the red.
"This is really fraud"
In France, former teachers denounce practices they describe as fraudulent. Maxime Fauquemberg, a teacher in Valenciennes to whom the school owes over €10,000, does not mince his words: "This is really fraud! They continued to recruit students in Brussels when the Office of Foreigners in Belgium had officially indicated that no more visas would be granted. These schemes must stop." Other former teachers claim they have not been paid for months.
The management official contests any fraudulent intent and attributes the financial difficulties to the fall in visa grants — an explanation that students and former teachers struggle to accept.
Bleak prospects for the victims
To financial distress is added severe administrative pressure. Patrice, one of the students, sees his visa expire in ten days. Without re-enrolment in a new establishment, he risks expulsion. Returning to Cameroon without a diploma seems unthinkable to him: his parents had bet on him alone among his six brothers and sisters. "I had a contract with my family. I had two years to complete my studies. They spent a lot of money. And now I have no diploma, it is as if I came to Belgium for nothing," he says.
Some students are trying to enrol in another school to regularise their stay, others are attempting to extend their residence permit before it expires. As for the thousands of euros paid in tuition fees, the administrator managing the insolvency is clear: given the debts accumulated by the IT School, students have very little chance of being reimbursed.
Source: RTBF Info