At Belgian universities, a person titled Licentiate (or Licentiaat in Dutch or Licencié in French, abbreviated lic.) holds the equivalent education of a Master's degree. A female Licentiate was called Licentiate in Dutch and Licenciée in French. The years spent to obtain the degree of Licentiate were called Licentiaat or Licentie in Dutch and Licence in French. It was the second level of university study, after that of Candidate (or Kandidaat in Dutch or Candidat in French, abbreviated cand.). A female Candidate was called Kandidate in Dutch and Candidate in French. The years spent to obtain the degree of Candidate were called Kandidaats or Kandidatuur in Dutch and Candidature in French. Each of those two levels required at least two years (four semesters) of successful study. Licentiates were required to write a thesis (called licentiaatsverhandeling in Dutch and mémoire de licence in French). This candidate-licentiate system is now being replaced by an American-style bachelor-master system. Civil engineer (or Burgerlijk ingenieur in Dutch or Ingénieur civil in French, abbreviated ir.), Doctor of medicine (or Doctor in de geneeskunde in Dutch or Docteur en médecine in French, abbreviated dr. med., until 1992), Physician (or Arts in Dutch or Médecin in French, after 1992), Doctor of law (or Doctor in de rechten in Dutch or Docteur en droit in French, abbreviated dr. iur., until 1972) and Magister (philosophy and theology, abbreviated mag.) were equivalent to Licentiate. Baccalaureus (philosophy and theology, abbreviated bac.) was equivalent to Candidate. The former titles dr. med. and dr. iur. are to be considered as professional doctorates, whereas the title dr., which is the result of third level study and research, is a higher doctorate. The Belgian licentiate was also equivalent to the doctorandus in the Netherlands. At the KU Leuven there used to be a degree Licentiaat-doctorandus in de TEW (Toegepaste Economische Wetenschappen) en in Beleidsinformatica. Apart from the general abbreviation lic., more specific abbreviations, such as LHFW (Licentiaat in de Handels- en Financiële Wetenschappen) and LTH (Licentiaat in de Tandheelkunde) exist.
