For whom
The admission requirements may vary. Depending on your prior education, you can either enrol directly or there are additional requirements.
Quality Assurance
At Ghent University, we strive to educate people who dare to think about the challenges of tomorrow. For that purpose, we provide education that is embedded in six strategic objectives: Think Broadly, Keep Researching, Cultivate Talent, Contribute, Extend Horizons, Opt for Quality.
Ghent University continuously focuses on quality assurance and quality culture. The Ghent University's quality assurance system offers information on each study programme’s unique selling points, and on its strengths and weaknesses with regard to quality assurance.
More information:
Unique Selling Points
- Thought and action: the Master of Multilingual Communication (in its various language combinations) combines an academic with a practice-oriented and career-focused profile. The programme provides current overviews of linguistic theory, translation theory, and communication theory, along with professional language and translation skills in Dutch and your foreign languages.
- A strong team of lecturers: our programme features a dedicated team of lecturers who blend their research expertise with a passion for teaching. Our lecturers and teaching assistants specialise in their respective roles, combining their specialised knowledge with their professional experience. Each language department employs native speakers.
- A variety of teaching and assessment methods: We aim for a wide range of teaching and assessment methods. Theoretical course units are delivered through lectures. In our practice-oriented seminars, you will work diligently in small groups with fellow students and lecturers. We combine end-of-term assessments (exams) with interim assignments and assessments. Through these, you can take control of your learning process.
- Keeping up with developments in the professional field: our programme prepares you for the specific demands of the professional field, such as language teaching (secondary education, foreign languages, and Dutch), applications of language technology, interpreting contexts, translation projects, or multilingual business communication. We actively involve and consult the professional sector, for example, in the lead-up to a curricular review.
- The wide world: our Bachelor's programme excels in terms of internationalisation. All our students have the opportunity to spend one term abroad. Furthermore, we are a leading contributor to the unique Applied European Languages programme, a four-year Bachelor's programme that involves spending two years abroad.
Strengths
- Organisation and student satisfaction: surveys indicate that students are highly satisfied with the organisation of our study programme. They also value the quality of the programme, the internationalisation opportunities, the application of knowledge, and the balance of soft skills and language proficiency within the curriculum. Students regard our study programme as coherent and relevant, and report that classes run smoothly. We continuously adapt our organisation as needed, in close consultation with student representatives.
- Interculturality: you will not study Dutch and the foreign language of your choice as separate entities. Instead, you will learn how linguistic and cultural regions differ from each other, and how to adapt communication accordingly.
- Work placement: we offer ample opportunities for practical experience (i.e., a work placement) as part of the Master's curriculum. Increasingly, our students undertake these practical experiences through a mobility window.
- Our job application seminar is a practical and highly effective initiative. It is a three-day event where students learn the details of applying for jobs from recruitment and human resources management experts. They also have the chance to network with alumni working in various sectors.
- Internationalisation: thanks to our various exchange opportunities, we welcome many international Erasmus students, which ensures daily contact with native speakers.
- Through portfolio assignments, our students develop the essential discipline-specific hard skills along with various soft skills (such as managing deadlines, processing feedback, planning, teamwork, and self-reliance) that are relevant in a future professional environment.
Challenges
- Research competencies: students often report feeling unprepared for a research career after graduation. Students interested in or inclined towards academic research deserve our maximum support. We are developing comprehensive and personalised initiatives for them. We also aim to actively contribute to initiatives that lead to the establishment of a research master's programme.
- Pursuing a high standard involves a significant workload: students have indicated that our language proficiency requirements are demanding and that assignment deadlines need better alignment.
- The results of the Study Programme Feedback reveal relatively low scores on items related to social commitment, sustainability, entrepreneurship, and ecology. We believe that focusing on multilingual and intercultural mediation helps build a society based on sustainable structures. However, we recognise that there is room for improvement.
This study programme is accredited by the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders (Dutch: NVAO). Accreditation was extended following the positive outcome of the institutional review in 2022. Programme quality was validated by a quality review, i.e. a screening of the Education Monitor by the Education Quality Board. The resulting Quality Assurance Resolution (in Dutch) can be found here.
This information was last updated on 01/07/2023.
If you have questions or suggestions about the publicly available information, please get in touch with the study programme.