Studying in Ghent

1. Preparing your stay

1.1. Application procedure

To become an exchange student at the faculty of Arts and Philosophy, you will need to fulfill the application procedure of Ghent University. The application procedure is explained on the following page: http://www.ugent.be/en/teaching/admission/exchangestudent/application.htm.

Make sure you send the 5 necessary documents to the International Relations Office (IRO - Carole Picavet) of Ghent University:

  1. Application Form (online registration)
  2. Learning Agreement
  3. Transcript of Records
  4. Language Requirement
  5. Written statement on why you wish to study in Ghent

before the faculty deadlines of  May, 15 (first semester) or November 15 (second semester)

Once we have received your documents from our IRO, we will find a departmental coordinator (usually a professor) to sign the documents and accept your coming. You will receive your letter of invitation through our IRO.

1.2. Learning Agreement

You have to make up a provisional Learning Agreement before arrival as part of the acceptance procedure. After your arrival at the faculty, you will make up a definite Learning Agreement (see more 2.2.) . Please note that the minimum credits exchange students must take are:

  1. trimester : 20 ECTS
  2. semester : 30 ECTS
  3. year : 60 ECTS

Information about courses at our faculty can be found here: http://studiegids.ugent.be/2013/EN/FACULTY/A/. You can take courses from bachelor and master programmes. You don’t have to limit your choice to the year and discipline you are enrolled in at your university. You can also take a couple of courses from other disciplines, even outside the faculty of arts and philosophy – however, the majority of the courses you choose must be found in the programme catalogue of our faculty.

You cannot choose individual courses nor the entire programme from "Subsequent Master's Programmes", such as the Master of American Studies or the Master of Advanced Studies in Linguistics. These programmes have specific admission requirements and are not open to exchange students!

Please note that almost all our courses are taught in Dutch. We strongly advise you to take a Dutch language course at the University Language Centre (Universitair Talencentrum). You can use the Taal-voucher which you will receive upon arrival.

More information on the courses concerning the teaching languages, the contents, learning material, evaluation methods etc., can be found by clicking on the name of the course.

2. Arriving at the faculty

2.1. What to do first

After your visit to Carole Picavet, you must come to the FCI administrators of the faculty of Arts and Philosophy. The FCI administrators will help you with all administrative questions like finding the time schedules of the classes, the Minerva platform, changing of your Learning Agreement. On the contact page of this site you can find out who is who at the FCI as well as the office hours.

See:
Introduction to Minerva

2.2. Definitive Learning Agreement

You have to make up a definitive Learning Agreement once you are in Ghent, as soon as you have made a final choice of courses and no later than one month after the start of the academic year. In other words, the deadline for you definitive learning Agreement is 11th of March 2013. In case you do not hand it in, your exchange period will not be validated at our university! Your departmental coordinator at Ghent University must sign this learning agreement before you hand it in to the FCI administrators. The FCI administrators will send the definitive LA to your home university and ask to send a signed copy back to Ghent.

This learning agreement is definitive. You can change it only once and no later than two months before departure!

You can ask your departmental coordinator for advice concerning your courses and the changes you would like to make. You can download a blank Learning Agreement from the following website: http://www.ugent.be/en/teaching/admission/exchangestudent/application.htm.

2.3. At the end of your stay

The FCI administrators will make up a Transcript of Records and send it to your home university after you have finished your exams at our faculty.