Bachelor of Science in Engineering: Architecture
An architect not only possesses a talent for design and engineering but should also have an aptitude for the socio-cultural and architectural-scientific dimension of their work. After all, architecture does not stand isolated from life and society in which it occurs. Architecture shapes the environment, while at the same time manifesting itself within that environment.
What
First and foremost, our programme offers a solid practical training, architectural design methods and presentation techniques, supplemented with a basic knowledge of urban design. You will be made acquainted with, and gain insight into the constructional and technical principles of building. You will learn the significance and social importance of architecture and urban design nourished by historical and architectural theoretical knowledge and reflection. You will learn to conduct and present design-oriented and academic research. And last but not least, you will get to know the architect’s professional practice. With its rich learning environment, our study programme offers you the time, the means and the possibilities to deepen or become proficient in one of the specific aspects of the field, depending on your own abilities and interests.
Remarks
To be able to enrol in the Bachelor of Engineering: Architecture programme, you must have taken the benchmark test.
For whom
Architects must possess a wide range of qualities. There is technical and design talent as well as social-cultural and architectural-academic talent. Studying Architecture means choosing a broad intellectual study programme. It also means having a broad interest in the various aspects and especially in their mutual relationships.
In terms of prior education, a secondary school diploma with at least 6 hours/week of mathematics in its curriculum is particularly welcome. The first-year mathematics course units build upon a secondary school curriculum containing 6 hours/week of mathematics in the two senior years. Prior knowledge for physics is useful as well, but it is less decisive than mathematics. The design studios make up the artistic component of the study programme. A great interest in design and aesthetics, and the motivation to learn are specific conditions for success. Please note that design is part of the study programme’s bedrock. Simply being good at the basic science course units and architectural-scientific course units will not suffice. A good architect possesses the unique combination of both talents.
Structure
- Bachelor
The Bachelor’s programme offers a common curriculum for all students. It contains three cornerstones: architectural design, engineering and fundamental sciences course units, and architectural sciences. You are introduced to architectural design practice, and to the design process through specific design practicals. In the design-related course units (Design Theory, Studio Perception and Presentation Media, Digital Design) you will learn to think and communicate about your own work in words and images, and to choose the appropriate means and presentation techniques to do so. In the engineering course units you are introduced to the construction and technical principles of building. The mathematics and physics course units will give you the necessary scientific footing. In addition, we also focus on the social importance of architecture and urban planning.
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Master
The Master’s curriculum allows for the development of your own specific profile. Each of our students comes into contact with a broad variety of disciplines, all of which are part of the cultural, spatial and technical field of architecture. We confront you with complex social issues, which are impossible to tackle from a monodisciplinary perspective but demand a multiperspectivistic approach instead. In addition, you will choose from a set of design studios focusing on the city, on architecture, the interior or construction details. These design studios are taught by specialists from the Flemish architectural scene, each of whom have their own unique vision.
In the Master’s curriculum, traditional lectures increasingly make way for seminars with a focus on specific themes or issues. Our electives consist for a large part of ‘special issues’. These give you the opportunity to participate in the ongoing research of our lecturers. The Master's dissertation offers the opportunity of an in-depth study of a specific field of knowledge, ranging from building physics, architectural history, to urbanisation processes and architectural design. Your choice of topic is always settled in close consultation with one of our lecturers.
The seminars as well as the Master's dissertation contain highly interactive teaching methods. They garner close interaction between students, lecturers, and researchers. After completing the Architecture programme (the Bachelor’s and/or the Master’s programme), you might consider the Urbanism and Spatial Planning programme. It focuses on the interrelation between space and society, and how policy can impact this interrelation.
Labour Market
Our graduates are professionally active in a wide variety of sectors. After the work placement, some of them set up their own architectural practice, either individually or in group. Other graduates find employment in government services, where they help set the scene for future building and planning. Others choose a career as stability or technical installations engineer, project manager, energy expert or safety co-ordinator. The study programme also opens up professional perspectives for those who want to focus on advanced visualization techniques or data processing necessary in construction and planning processes.
Be sure to take a look at the following alumni testimonies
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
- 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).
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Strengths
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Weaknesses
- 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.
- 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.