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. Thought and action: the Master of Multilingual Communication (in its various language combinations) reconciles an academic with a practice-oriented and job-oriented profile. The programme offers current overviews of linguistic theory, translation theory and communication theory in combination with a professional language and translation proficiency in Dutch and in two foreign languages, and an in-depth knowledge of the culture and society of the chosen linguistic regions.
2. A strong team of lecturers:our programme boasts a dedicated team of lecturers, who combine their research expertise with a passion for teaching. Our lecturers and teaching assistants have specialised in their teaching assignment and reconcile that expertise with their professional experience. Each language department employs native speakers.
3. A diversity of teaching and assessment methods: we aim for a wide variety of teaching and assessment methods. Theoretic course units take the form of lectures. In our practice-oriented seminars you will set to work diligently in small groups of fellow-students and lecturers. We combine end-of-term assessment (exams) with interim assignments and assessment. By means of the latter, students can take control of your own learning process.
4. Keeping abreast of developments in the professional field: our programme prepares you for the specific requirements of the professional field, e.g. in terms of language teaching (secondary education, foreign languages, and Dutch), applications of language technology, interpreting contexts, translation projects or multilingual business communication.
5. The wide world. Our Bachelor's programme is the absolute number one in terms of internationalisation. All our students have the opportunity to spend one term abroad. What is more, we are one of the driving forces behind the unique Applied European Languages programma, a four-year Bachelor’s programme in the course of which you spend two years abroad.

1. Organisation and student satisfaction: surveys show that student satisfaction is high when it comes to the organisation of our study programme. Students find our study programme to be coherent and relevant, and our classes to run smoothly. We adjust our organisation continuously as needed, in close consultation with the student representatives.
2. Interculturality: you will not study Dutch and the foreign languages of your choice as separate entities. Instead, you will learn how linguistic and cultural regions differ from each other, and how to adjust communication accordingly.
3. Work placement: our most recent curricular revision has created ample opportunity for practical experience in the form of a work placement in the Master's curriculum. Increasingly, our students take on these practical experiences in the form of a mobility window.
4. Job application seminar: our job application seminar is a concrete and highly successful initiative. It is a three-day event where students learn the ins and outs of applying for jobs from recruitment and human resources management specialists. They also have the opportunity to network with alumni who work in various sectors.
5. Internationalisation: Thanks to our various exchange opportunities we welcome many international Erasmus students, which ensures a daily contact with native speakers.
6. By means of portfolio assignments, our students acquire the required discipline-specific hard skills as well as various soft skills (managing deadlines, processing feedback, planning, collaboration in a team, self-reliance, etc...) that are relevant in a future professional environment.

1. Research competencies: students indicate regularly that they feel unprepared for a research career upon graduation. Moreover, some of our students do not see academic research as a priority for them. Students with an interest in/inclination towards academic research deserve our maximum support. We are developing in-depth and tailored initiatives for them. We also want to contribute actively to initiatives leading to a research master.
2. High standards and a heavy workload: our students indicate that we set high standards in terms of language and translation proficiency. Moreover, deadlines for independent work come in quick succession, which makes for a heavy workload. A point to consider for our study programme is to reward students who achieve those high standards with high marks.
3. Surveys show that our programme’s profile is not always clear to the general public. We want to clarify these issues better in the future. Be sure to browse our website’s FAQ on the role of cultural and social knowledge in our programme, the role of digitalisation in the world (of language), on the future of the interpreting profession, on multilingualism in the professional world, or on Applied Linguistics as a step to a successful career in education (in Dutch).

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 2018. 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 01/02/2023.
In case of questions or suggestions with regard to the publicly available information, please contact the study programme.