Master of Science in Bioscience Engineering Technology: Agriculture and Horticulture (Plant and Animal Production)
The Master of Science in Bioscience Engineering Technology: Agriculture and Horticulture (Schoonmeersen Campus - Ghent) focuses on science and innovation in agriculture and horticulture. You learn to apply biological and technological knowledge to improve plant and animal production.
What
The Master of Science in Bioscience Engineering Technology: Agriculture and Horticulture (option plant and animal production) is the ideal choice for those aspiring to an exciting, future-oriented career in the plant and animal production sectors, and wishing to contribute to sustainable food production. Admission into the programme depends on your successful completion of the academic Bachelor's programme in Bioscience Engineering Technology (option Agriculture). Students with a professional Bachelor's diploma can be admitted into the programme after completing an academic bridging programme.
The agricultural and horticultural sectors face serious challenges: how can we continue to produce sufficient, high-quality food for an ever-growing world population while respecting humankind, the environment, and the economy? By choosing our programme, you will come to understand and address these complex issues.
This Master's programme offers an in-depth and broad understanding of the agricultural production system in all its aspects. You will study how plant and animal production can be optimised within ecological and socioeconomic constraints. Each topic receives ample attention to sustainable production systems and to the interplay among agriculture, nature, and the environment. You will learn how agriculture and nature conservation can go hand in hand and how agriculturists play an essential role in nature conservation. By acquiring fundamental knowledge of production processes and the environment, and understanding the common ground between them, our graduates become liaisons between production and the environment. Through site visits and projects, you will learn how theory is implemented.
The curriculum also addresses international and societal perspectives. You will learn about agricultural systems worldwide and examine current topics such as food security, climate change and agroecology. The Master's programme culminates in a dissertation, an original piece of research on a current issue focusing on plant or animal production, (agro)ecological, food or climate-related aspects.
Building on the Bachelor's curriculum, the Master's curriculum combines a strong theoretical foundation with a clear practical focus. You will gain an in-depth understanding of topics including plant and crop sciences, agroecology, sustainable production systems, crop protection, plant and animal nutrition, plant and animal genetics, and the management of an agricultural or horticultural business. Taken together, this will give you a coherent and realistic understanding of how agricultural production systems operate and how they are managed.
In addition to the compulsory course units, the curriculum allows you to explore your personal interests through electives. You can choose to specialise in precision agriculture or tropical production, or gain practical experience through a work placement.
Through site visits at home and abroad, you will learn how theory is put into practice. These visits will give you a topical, realistic idea of daily practice in the sector. As part of the study programme, we also promote international experiences by organising study trips abroad, offering an elective on tropical agriculture, or allowing the Master's dissertation or the work placement to be conducted abroad.
For whom
The admission requirements may vary. Depending on your prior education, you can either enrol directly or there may be additional requirements.
Labour Market
A Master's diploma in Bioscience Engineering Technology (Agriculture and Horticulture) opens many career opportunities! Opportunities are plentiful in the agricultural and horticultural sectors and the related green sector, whether in government employment or in the business world.
The agricultural and horticultural sectors are rapidly expanding and increasingly reliant on technology, knowledge, and creativity. This demand explains why engineers with this specific profile are highly sought after. Career opportunities include supply management, production, trade and processing, technical-commercial roles, information, foreign aid, research, and education. Alternatively, you could become a self-employed entrepreneur.
Moreover, there has been a growing emphasis on green practices and nature within the agricultural and horticultural sectors, encompassing trending topics such as management agreements, niche agriculture like agroforestry, and the exploitation of nature. Bioscience Engineering Technology graduates are uniquely positioned to work in specific domains within the agriculture or horticulture sectors, and/or to bridge the gaps between agriculture and nature and between agriculture and landscape conservation. You possess the knowledge and vision to further shape these developments, and you are versatile and qualified for employment across various sectors.
Are you curious about specific career options? Please refer to the inspiring stories shared by our alumni! They recount their exciting career opportunities as Engineering Technology graduates (in Dutch: ‘industrieel ingenieur’). Let their stories inspire you and help you discover the opportunities that are open to you!
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
- Multidisciplinarity: we train highly qualified engineers who can take on a variety of assignments and positions, mainly in the primary production chain. This production chain starts with the development, production and supply of genetically modified starting materials (seeds, vegetatively propagated plants, young animals, ...), means of production (substrates, fertilisers, cattle feed) and means of investment (machinery, greenhouses, stables). The primary production chain links are plant breeding and animal husbandry.
- Integration of theory and practice: among our research and experimentation facilities are a testing farm, an in vitro and a phytopathological lab. These facilities allow our students to gain practical and research experience during their Master’s dissertation. They also stimulate their problem-solving capacities and offer an environment for working together in dynamic teams. The application-oriented engineers they will become will have to position themselves as ‘translators’ from concept to product.
- Multiperspectivism: our students learn to approach problems from different angles and place them in a broader perspective. This is why we also encourage our students to gain international experience and to get in touch with international students or lecturers. The Master’s dissertation and the work placement are linked to topical issues raised by companies or sectors. Incorporating the perspective of the professional field thus comes naturally. Company visits also contribute to this.
- Student talent development: apart from lectures and practicals, our teaching methods include project teaching, company visits, work placements, workshops and other active methods. These ensure that students can show their talents and develop them further.
- Knowledge creation: our wide range of well-considered course units and electives guarantees a gradual accrual of knowledge and skills.
Strengths
- A permanent quality culture: the Programme Committee manages the information flow and consultations between faculty services, lecturers and students. It also monitors the quality and profile of the study programme. During its monthly meetings, the Programme Committee can promptly address potential issues and important considerations.
- Dedicated team of lecturers: our study programme features a dedicated team of lecturers from various fields, integrating their passion for teaching with a commitment to globally focused research.
- Solid study track counselling: students can get personal advice from our well-organised study track counselling to compile their curriculum via an academic bridging programme or a personalised study track.
- Student involvement: in addition to the traditional channels for representation and quality assurance, including the Programme Committee (programme level) and Quality Assurance Committee (faculty level), students have set up a Participation Committee (PACO). Student representatives place relevant issues on the Programme Committee’s agenda.
- Approachability: we highly value direct and intensive interaction between our lecturers and students.
Challenges
- Internationalisation: we want to encourage our students more to embark on study-abroad initiatives. We want to send out more Erasmus students and offer better guidance on compiling suitable modules. We organise an annual international study trip to explore the international dimensions of our discipline. Our lecturers are active members of various international partnerships. Our students can use these contacts for Master’s dissertation or work placement purposes, and to conduct these abroad. We also explore Internationalisation@Home opportunities further.
- Reconciling production and environment: as a study programme, we explicitly take on the challenge of reconciling production and the environment. We offer our students a thorough understanding of production processes and their environmental context, and of course units that straddle both. As a result, they become liaisons between production and the environment. We prepare our Master's students to bridge the gap between these sectors and to reduce polarisation between them. Students learn to understand how production affects the environment and vice versa, and how to handle this relationship more sustainably.
- Feedback: sometimes there is still insufficient feedback on papers and reports. More so than before, we invest in feedback on assignments. This implies that lecturers and students consult each other more on the timing/deadline of these assignments and what is expected of the students.
Accreditation
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, 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 25/11/2025. In case of questions or suggestions with regard to the publicly available information, please contact the study programme.