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 thorough understanding of the role of communication in general, and the media in particular, in society today and beyond: our programme offers you a better understanding of today’s society - and of living together in general. By means of an in-depth study of key communication processes and communication systems that make living together and even society at large possible, you will gain new insights on the society of the future.
2. Multiperspectivism: you learn to study communication from various perspectives: psychology, sociology, economy, history, technology, ethics, ... and even biology. All our course units focus on diversity and intercultural dialogue.
3. A critical and analytical attitude: ours is a hands-on programme with, in addition to theory, a focus on the practice of ‘doing communication studies’ You acquire a wide range of quantitative and qualitative research skills and become a specialist in the critical and nuanced analysis of (often complex) communication.
4. Education and research go hand in hand: the main learning pathways in our Bachelor’s curriculum and in the four main subjects of our Master’s curriculum are grounded in a corresponding research group. This guarantees that the newest academic insights and research expertise is fed into the curriculum immediately.
5. In tune with the labour market: throughout the programme you come into contact with the broad professional field. We achieve this by means of the work placement, among other things, as well as our course units on professional skills, our study abroad opportunities, English-taught course units, specific research projects in collaboration with the professional field, guest lectures by professionals, or by means of an elective on entrepreneurship. In other words, our academic-scientific education with its strong ties to daily practice and current affairs ensures a smooth entry into the labour market.

1. Revised Bachelor’s and Master’s curriculum: media and communication are a fast- and ever-changing field. To keep abreast with these changes, we have made the conscious choice to invest in an innovative curriculum. We are a socially and academically relevant study programme, and we have optimised the current curriculum accordingly, by highlighting and building on existing strengths. In addition to the solid theoretical groundwork and a further honing of the students’ critical thought, we also focus on professional skills. In so doing we prepare our students for the labour market of the future. The new curriculum also offers students more room to personalise their profile, and a broad range of electives for in-depth study. It allows them to become independent, critical communication professionals.
2. Active teaching methods focused on knowledge creation: our programme places great store by Ghent University’s credo “Dare to Think”. By means of active teaching methods like workshops, portfolios, and microteaching, we involve our students actively in their learning process as a whole. This also includes an active contribution to specific research projects in one of our four research centres. Our focus is to lead students towards creating new academic insights, here as well as in their Bachelor’s and Master’s dissertation.
3. Talent development for students: the four main subjects we have on offer allows you to tailor the curriculum to your personal interests and talents. Our broad range of teaching methods, in particular the Master challenges and work placement opportunities, stimulate a broad range of talents. In addition, the various electives also allow for an optimal cultivation of your talents.
4. Internationalisation: in the past few years we have invested heavily in internationalisation. We participate intensively in the Erasmus programme and expand our network of international partners all the time. As a result, our students can embark on a study abroad initiative in the third Bachelor year as well as in the Master.
5. English-taught course units and I@H: with our offer of English-taught course units we cater to our “stay-at-home” students. It gives them the opportunity to hone their proficiency in English and come into contact with incoming international Erasmus students, with whom they collaborate actively in class assignments. In the context of I@H we also offer various international lectures and workshops. Finally, our focus on intercultural competencies in various course units makes for an international and global perspective.
6. Commitment of lecturers and assistants: we use the electronic learning environment Ufora, a broad presence on social media platforms, availability before and after classes, weekly office hours and individual appointments to promote close contact between our lecturers and our students. In addition, our students’ active participation in ongoing research projects and in education policy engenders direct communication between students and their lecturers as well.

1. Improved communication vis-à-vis students: there is room for improvement when it comes to student communication. Our department takes various steps to make this communication more efficient. More specifically, communication on the professional relevance of the learning content and the awareness of our own unique selling points merits further consideration. Although the curriculum is well-matched to the needs of the professional field, students experience several course units as ‘too academic’ or ‘purely theoretical’. As a result, they often only realise the professional relevance after graduation, once they have their first professional experience. We need to stress the practical relevance of the learning content more emphatically.
2. Creating a more comprehensive learning environment: as it stands, traditional lectures have largely made way for more active teaching methods, despite large student numbers. Nevertheless, we can put more effort still in creating a more comprehensive learning environment for our students, e.g. by means of company visits or other extracurricular activities. Our annual Media Innovation Week serves as a good example: one week in October, we suspend all traditional lectures and we use active and sometimes even entertaining teaching methods to introduce our Master’s students to the newest developments in the media landscape.
3. Lastly, we are working towards embedding the external perspective in and on our study programme (policy) further in a structural manner.

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 (peer-learning visit) in 2019. A screening of the Education Monitor by Ghent University’s Education Quality Board is planned in the years 2021-2024.

This information was last updated on 23/01/2023.
In case of questions or suggestions with regard to the publicly available information, please contact the study programme.