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About Ghent University
Established in 1817 by King William I of the Netherlands, Ghent University (Dutch: Universiteit Gent, abbreviated as UGent) is apublic research university located in Ghent, Belgium. After the Belgian revolution of 1830, the newly-formed Belgian state began to administer the university. In 1930, it became the first Dutch-speaking university in Belgium—French having been the academic language up to that point. In 1991, the university was granted major autonomy and changed its name from State University of Ghent(Dutch: Rijksuniversiteit Gent, abbreviated as RUG) to its current designation. It is one of the larger Flemish universities, consisting of 41,000 students and 9,000 staff members. The current rector is Anne De Paepe.
Ghent consistently rates among the top universities not only in Belgium but also throughout the world. As of 2015, Ghent University ranks 118th globally according to Times Higher Education, 124th according to QS World University Rankings, and 71st according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities.
The past 200 years, Ghent University employed manyeminent scientists such as Nobel Prize winners Corneille Heymans and Maurice Maeterlinck, Leo Baekeland, Joseph Guislain, Walter Fiers, Marc VanMontagu, Peter Piot,...
Our 11 faculties are composed of 117 faculty departments. These departments offer more than 230 high-quality courses in every one of their scientific disciplines, each inspired by innovative research.
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Faculty of Arts and Philosophy
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Faculty of Law
The Faculty provides academic teaching and services based on innovative scientific research.
The education within these programmes is supported by the innovative scientific research performed within the 3 faculty departments encompassing all possible disciplines within the fields of law and criminological sciences.
The Faculty of Law is housed in the Universiteitstraat, where it all began for Ghent University in 1817.The Ghent University was founded by royal decree in 1816 and opened its doors in 1817. The Faculty of Law was one of the four original faculties. (The royal decree also proposed a fifth faculty, Godsgeleerdheid (Theology), which was never realised.)
- Department of Interdisciplinary Study of Law, Private Law and Business Law
- Department of European, Public and International Law
- Department of Criminology, Penal Law and Social Law
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Faculty of Sciences
The faculty of Science is very diverse. Researchers within the faculty focus on the study of the smallest and the largest in the universe, the living and non-living matter, seeking knowledge on the most fundamental level or developping high-tech applications. Research and education are organized within the 14 departments. The logistics departments offer them support. The faculty is governed by numerous boards and committees.
- Department of Mathematics
- Department of Applied Mathematics, Computer Science and Statistics
- Department of Solid State Sciences (
- Department of Physics and Astronomy
- Department of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry
- Department of Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry
- Department of Analytical Chemistry
- Department of Plant Biotechnology and Bioinformatics
- Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology
- Department of Biology
- Department of Geography
- Department of Geology
- Department for Molecular Biomedical Research
- Department of Physiology
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Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
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Faculty of Engineering and Architecture
The Faculty of Engineering and Architecture is one of the largest faculties of Ghent University. It combines state-of-the-artresearch with top-notch education in all significant engineering and architecture fields. The faculty strongly focusses on international relations. It offers a wide array of master's programmes taught in English and is active in all major exchange programmes. Through research collaboration and educational links with top European institutions, the faculty strives to further enhance its international perspective.
- Department of Architecture and urban planning
- Department of Flow, heat and combustion mechanics
- Department of Information technology
- Department of Electronics and information systems
- Department of Telecommunications and information processing
- Department of Electrical energy, systems and automation
- Department of Materials science and engineering
- Department of Textiles
- Department of Chemical engineering and technical chemistry
- Department of Structural engineering
- Department of Civil engineering
- Department of Mathematical analysis
- Department of Applied physics
- Department of Industrial systems engineering and product design
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Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
The current Faculty of Economics and Business Administration was established on 1 October 1998. Economic education at Ghent University, however, has a much longer history.
There are
- Department General Economics
- Department Financial Economics
- Department Social Economics
- Department Accounting, Corporate Finance and Taxation
- Department Marketing
- Department Business Informatics and Operations Management
- Department Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Service Management
- Department Public Governance, Management and Finance
- Human Resource Management and Organizational Behaviour
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Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
The faculty, with about 1,400 students and 50 professors, is one of the 11 faculties of the Ghent University. The educational programs are supported by the scientific research performed by the 12 departments.
- Department of Comparative Physiology and Biometry
- Department of Pharmacology, Biochemistry and toxicology
- Department of Morphology
- Department of Virology, parasitology and immunology
- Department of Pathology, bacteriology and poultry diseases
- Department of Veterinary Public Health and Food Safety
- Department of Nutrition, Genetics and Ethology
- Department of Obstetrics, reproduction and herd health
- Department of Medicine and clinical biology of small animals
- Department of Surgery and anaesthesiology of domestic animals
- Department of Medical imaging of domestic animals
- Department of Internal medicine and clinical biology of large animals
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Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences
There are departments of
- Data-analysis
- Developmental, personality and social psychology
- Educational studies
- Experimental clinical and health psychology
- Experimental psychology
- Personnel management, work and organizational psychology
- Psycho-analysis and clinical consulting
- Social work and social pedagogy
- Special needs education
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Faculty of Bioscience Engineering
The Faculty of Bioscience Engineering within Ghent University is a European research leader in the field of applied biological and life sciences or bioengineering.
We educate generations of scientists in leading edge research and high impact work with governments and communities, industry and NGOs, to support innovation and sustainability in life sciences while managing and protecting natural and man-made ecosystems.
- Department of Agricultural Economics
- Department of Plant Production
- Department of Crop Protection
- Department of Forest and Water Management
- Department of Biosystems Engineering
- Department of Biochemical and Microbial Technology
- Department of Food Safety and Food Quality
- Department of Applied Analytical and Physical Chemistry
- Department of Applied Ecology and Environmental Biology
- Department of Mathematical Modelling, Statistics and Bioinformatics
- Department of Sustainable organic chemistry and technology
- Department of Soil Management
- Department of Animal Production
- Department of Molecular Biotechnology
- Department of Applied biosciences
- Department of Industrial biological sciences
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Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences
The Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences is the smallest faculty at Ghent University. It profiles itself by carrying out pharmaceutical teaching, multidisciplinary pharmaceutical research and services to third parties. The Dean’s office is the administrative centre and in addition to the numerous central councils and committees that operate on a university-wide scale, it has at its disposal a number of local faculty committees that are competent for a number of specific educational and research-related matters.
- Department of Pharmaceutics
- Department of Pharmaceutical Analysis
- Department of Bioanalysis
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Faculty of Political and Social Sciences
The Faculty of Political and Social Sciences is a relatively young faculty that puts forward the following values: quality and capability, dynamics and the power of innovation, democratization and accessibility, integrity and justice. The Faculty wants to materialize these values in its threefold task of education, research and service within the research domains of the Political Sciences, Communication Sciences and Sociology. The Faculty is justified by its educational function and in its critical-intellectual role as a group of scientists within a continually changing and developing society.
- Department of Communication Sciences
- Department of Political Sciences
- Department of Sociology
- Department of Conflict and Development Studies
History of Ghent University
The university in Ghent was opened on 9 October 1817, with JC van Rotterdam serving as the first rector. In the first year, it had 190 students and 16 professors. The original four faculties consisted of Humanities (Letters), Law, Medicine and Science, and the language of instruction was Latin. The university was founded by King William I as part of a policy to stem the intellectual and academic lag in the southern part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, later to become Belgium. The University of Liège was founded as part of the same movement.
After peaking at a student population of 414, the number of students declined quickly following the Belgian Revolution. At this time, the Faculties of Humanities and Science were broken from the university, but they were restored five years later, in 1835. Ghent University played a big role in the foundation of modern organic chemistry. Friedrich August Kekulé (7 September 1829 – 13 July 1896) unraveled the structure of benzene at Ghent and Adolf von Baeyer (Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Baeyer), a student of August Kekulé, made seminal contributions to organic chemistry.
In 1882, Sidonie Verhelst became the first female student at the university.
French became the language of instruction, taking the place of Latin, after the 1830 Revolution. In 1903, the Flemish politician Lodewijk De Raet led a successful campaign to begin instruction in Dutch, and the first courses were begun in 1906.
During World War I, the occupying German administration conducted Flamenpolitik and turned Ghent University into the first Dutch-speaking university in Belgium. A Flemish Institute (Vlaemsche Hoogeschool), commonly known as Von Bissing University, was founded in 1916 but was disestablished after the war and French language was fully reinstated. In 1923, Cabinet Minister Pierre Nolf put forward a motion to definitively establish the university as a Dutch-speaking university, and this was realized in 1930. August Vermeylen served as the first rector of a Dutch-language university in Belgium.
In the Second World War, the German administration of the university attempted to create a German orientation, removing faculty members and installing loyal activists. However, the university became the focal point for many resistance members as the war progressed.
After the war, the university became a much larger institution, following government policy of democratizing higher education in Flanders during the 1950s and 1960s. By 1953, there were more than 3,000 students, and by 1969 more than 11,500. The number of faculties increased to eleven, starting with Applied Sciences in 1957. It was followed by Economics and Veterinary Medicine in 1968, Psychology and Pedagogy, as well as Bioengineering, in 1969, and Pharmaceutical Sciences. The faculty of Politics and Social Sciences is the most recent addition, in 1992.
In the 1960s to 1980s, there were several student demonstrations at Ghent University, notably around the Blandijn site, which houses the Faculty of Arts & Philosophy. The severest demonstrations took place in 1969 in the wake of May 1968.
The university officially changed its name from Rijksuniversiteit Gent (RUG) to Universiteit Gent (UGent) in 1991 following an increased grant of autonomy by the government of the Flemish Community.
On 1 October 2013, Anne De Paepe succeeded Paul Van Cauwenberge as rector.
Accreditation
Institutional Accreditation or Recognition - Vlaams Ministerie van Onderwijs en Vorming, België
Rankings
- Ghent University is consistently ranked among the best universities in Belgium and worldwide (top 100).
- Ghent University rises from place 85 to 70 in the recently published Shanghai ranking. Again Ghent University has the highest score of all Belgian universities in this world ranking of universities.
- In the 2009 THE–QS World University Rankings (From 2010 two separate rankings will be produced by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and the QS World University Rankings) list of the top 100 universities in the world, Ghent University was ranked in 136th place.
- In the Times Top 50 Life Sciences Universities 2011-2012, Ghent ranked 36th.
- In the 2010 QS World University Rankings it was ranked 192nd, whereas the 2011 rankings placed it at 165th.
- In the Times Higher Education World University Rankingsof 2010, it was ranked 124nd.
- Ghent University was ranked 89th among world universities by the Academic Ranking of World Universities in 2012.
- The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), commonly known as the Shanghai ranking, is a publication that was founded and compiled by the Shanghai Jiaotong University.
- Ghent was also placed among top 95 universities in the world according to the Russian-based Global University Ranking.
Services of Ghent University
- The staff of the Health & Safety support services provide a central resource for health and safety to complement and support the work of safety officers in the University’s academic departments. Together they ensure that the University is a safe and healthy place to work, study or visit. Our specialist safety advisers work alongside external authorities. They also run a comprehensive programme of internal inspections, including environmental monitoring, chemical monitoring and noise surveys. The team also delivers training courses and produces guidance documents on a wide range of topics to ensure that all University staff are equipped to deliver best practice in health and safety.
- The Ghent University Emergency Centre is open 24/7 and is located at Home Vermeylen (Stalhof 6). This Centre responds to technical incidents (power failure, damage to infrastructure, leakage, stuck lift etc.) and safety and security incidents (fire, accident, aggression, theft, excessive noise etc.).
- Ghent University is committed to the principle and practice of environmental protection, with a focus on continuing improvement and reducing pollution.
- The Environment Office has drawn up an environmental policy relating pollution, hazardous agents, water, soil, air, biosafety, energy, mobility, etc.
The Department of Occupational Medicine has an advisory role in assisting the University to meet its general duty of care under Health Care Regulations. Its main functions are to prevent ill health arising from work and to promote health at UGent through the following activities:
- devising preventive strategies for identifying and controlling hazards to health arising from work.
- advising on individual's fitness or suitability for work.
- providing health surveillance in the workplace to ensure that the working environment will not adversely affect health (including workplace prevention for expectant mothers).
- providing advice on the planning and organization of work, including the design of workplaces, ergonomics and protective equipment.
- developing policies and strategies for the prompt recognition and treatment of injuries and illnesses arising from work.
- providing in First Aid courses and information.
- advising on rehabilitation and resettlement after illness or injury.
- promoting health education programmes on lifestyle issues such as smoking, healthy eating and alcohol and drug abuse(PDF).
- providing information and advice for medical students - trainees during their internship.
- organizing vaccination campaigns (e.g. free flu shots for staff).
- health and vaccination advice for work related travelling.
An important part of their duties is providing the medical check-up for staff. Everyone employed via an UGent contract receives an invitation letter for a medical check-up which is mandatory for all new employees. This check-up is performed by the nurses and doctors of the DOM on the campus of the Ghent University Hospital (UZ Gent)(external link).
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