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. Multidisciplinarity: the broadening Complementary Studies in Economics programme is a programme you take on after having completed another academic Bachelor’s or Master’s degree. Joining a group of mature students with various study backgrounds, you immerse yourself in and discuss broad economic themes.  Our programme offers a combination of domain-specific knowledge and previously acquired knowledge from a variety of disciplines. 
2. Student talent development: our students have a considerable degree of freedom to tailor the curriculum to their own interests.  The combination of three electives and a Master’s dissertation topic of your choice allow you to give your curriculum a distinctly personal touch (e.g. specialization in a certain sub-domain of economics).
3. Curriculum: the current hot topics of globalization, environment, labour and economic growth are mandatory subjects for everyone in the Complementary Studies in Economics programme. As indicated above, you complement the mandatory course units with three specialized electives, leaving plenty of time for completing the Master’s dissertation. Taken together, the general course units form a short preparatory study programme worth 27 ECTS credits. This ensures a step-by-step knowledge build-up. Several of these general course units are integrated in the economics minors in other study programmes.
4. Knowledge creation: our graduates are versatile Masters who combine their prior education with newly acquired economic knowledge. We train our students to become critical professionals who can work in a team, and teach them to think and work in a creative and problem-solving manner.

1. Our programme boasts a dedicated team of lecturers who combine their passion for teaching with their research expertise and a commitment to premium-quality lectures. 
2. Approachability: being a small study programme, we focus on low-threshold contact between lecturers and students.
3. Various study backgrounds: students enter our programme coming from highly diverse education backgrounds. Once they have acquired a basic knowledge of economics, they are able to establish productive connections between economics and the various study backgrounds.
4. Study backgrounds valorized: our programme tries to integrate and thus valorize students’ prior education as much as possible. In their Master’s dissertation, many students explore the economic aspects of a problem they have dealt with from a different angle in their prior education.

1. Master’s dissertation process: the combination of a preparatory programme worth 27 ECTS-credits with a Master’s programme worth 60 ECTS-credits results in trajectories that deviate from the traditional academic year. Our programme is structured in such a way that students with a default study progress can complete the entire study programme and graduate in the first term of the second year. The search for a Master’s dissertation topic comes relatively early. We focus on specific coaching when it comes to choosing dissertation topics at the start of the programme in the form a specific information session and extra attention within the methodological course unit that is part of the preparatory programme.
2. Active learning methods: many course units make use of active teaching methods. Nevertheless, students indicate that they do not always see sufficient opportunities within the programme to apply their knowledge or to practice skills. This is something we monitor actively.
3. Internationalisation: the programme’s limited duration and the large amount of knowledge that must be imparted, leaves little room for internationalisation. We are examining possibilities to develop Internationalisation@home initiatives.