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.

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Ghent University's Education Objectives

Quality Assurance at Ghent University

1. A broad vision on architecture: we approach architecture not as an expertise leading to one particular professional profile, but as a discipline that touches on all facets of society. Students as designers-to-be learn to position themselves vis-à-vis the different knowledge areas (e.g. social, historical, technical, artistic) that, together, make up the broad field of architecture. Our curriculum is based on this global vision of architecture and is built on three important cornerstones: architectural design, construction and basic science course units, and architectural sciences. At the same time, the curriculum offers an open view on the world, both in terms of content and in terms of international mobility (study trips, work placement, Erasmus exchange).
2. A wide variety of teaching methods: our range of teaching methods includes lectures, interactive seminars, and design studios. Key components are the so-called Advanced Topics in Architecture (research seminars) and the Jokerweek (a project week in the course of which students from different years work together on one assignment). In these teaching methods we employ and involve staff with highly varied backgrounds and expertise: from professors and researchers to architects active in the field. We also invite international visiting speakers on a regular basis. 
3. Specific profile: we offer a coherent and well-structured curriculum, which at the same time leaves ample curricular freedom for students to take on electives, design studios, seminars, etc… .  This allows students to deepen their knowledge of, or become proficient in certain aspects of the discipline and develop their own profile over the years. This freedom of choice mainly applies to the Master’s curriculum. Students choose one of two main subjects, either focusing on the scale of the building, or on the scale of the city. Sufficient time is allotted to the Master’s dissertation. Within the contours of the Erasmus term, students have additional opportunities to put together a set of course units according to their interests at a renowned partner institution.
4. Involvement: student involvement in the development of our programme is high thanks to the efforts of, among others, the student association (‘The Mooing Cow’) and numerous student representatives. We promote this involvement further by means of teaching methods in which students engage in one-on-one discussions with their supervisors. Providing a meeting place for students and staff co-operation in the student magazine ensures a continuous, informal dialogue between students from the various years and between students and staff. We encourage including incoming Erasmus students in our ‘at home’ student population as much as possible by promoting mixed teams for group work, interactive teaching methods, etc.
5. Broad types of knowledge and competencies: we continuously encourage our students to critically self-reflect. Throughout the study programme, we offer them various types of knowledge and competencies. Thus we enable our students to establish a dialogue between increasingly specialized actors in the design and development of our built environment. We deliver versatile graduates with a basic mastery of all the discipline-specific knowledge competencies and a specialization based on their own interests and strengths. 

1. Well begun is half done, as they say: before starting their first academic year, students can participate in a number of summer courses. In addition, the benchmark test gauges prospective students’ desired starting level. Our information day serves to give prospective students a clear idea of our programme. We show them various study materials (such as models, drawings, project work, papers, etc…). The end-of-year exhibition, which is attended by new students, is also an important moment of information transfer.
2. Our programme boasts a team of committed lecturers from different disciplines (e.g. design, theory, history, building physics, construction technology, support systems, urban design, urban planning) and different professional backgrounds (professors, researchers, practising architects). This wide range of professional expertise contributes to an excellent and applied knowledge transfer within the different teaching methods. It also allows us to make multiperspectivism explicit in the curriculum. International visiting speakers and supervisors help to broaden our students’ view of the world.
3. Coherence within diversity: our broad curriculum calls for the development specific instruments to monitor/maintain coherence. Recently, our lecturers in collaboration with ‘The Mooing Cow’ have set up an annual Bachelor's newspaper. The newspaper contains an overview of all design-related assignments in the Bachelor’s curriculum, of how the academic year will be organized, and information on content-related emphases and teaching methods applied across the three-year Bachelor’s programme. This way, our students gain a better idea of how their own assignments tie in with our global vision for the Bachelor's programme, and our lecturers are forced to think about useful links between the various course units. Analogous to the Bachelor’s newspaper, there is a Master’s fair during which we explain the Advanced Topics in Architecture, the design studios and the Master’s dissertation. With this information, students are able to map out their entire two-year Master’s study track.
4. Assessment: we assess our students using various methods, e.g. assignments (either written submissions or oral presentations), and written and oral exams. This variety allow us to assess different competencies and skills. We believe it is important that students from the first year onwards are trained to make independent choices and that they are able to substantiate these choices to both staff and fellow students. From the second year onwards, we supervise students in writing papers with a focus on both form and content.
5. Approachability: we focus on immediate and intensive personal contact between our lecturers and students. The design studios and other assignment-related classes, for one, are ideal settings for one-on-one conversations between lecturers/supervisors and their students. In more traditional settings (e.g. theoretical lectures), too, we pay attention to the approachability of the lecturers.

1. Integration of types of knowledge and competencies: although the curriculum is well-structured, the interaction between the three cornerstones and the integration of different types of knowledge and competencies in the design studios remains a sticking point. We try to promote this integration in an open dialogue with the various stakeholders.
2. Workload: the students are right to indicate that the workload is often very high. Due to the combination of theoretical classes and design-related assignments, the workload is high both during regular term weeks as well as during the exam period. The Bachelor’s newspaper is one way to map out the workload and adjust it if necessary. In addition, we regularly and actively consult with the students to find out where and how the workload can be adjusted.

This study programme is accredited by the Accreditation Organization 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 Quality Assurance Resolution (in Dutch) can be found here.

This information was last updated on 14/02/2023.
In case of questions or suggestions with regard to the publicly available information, please contact the study programme.