Opt for Quality

How Ghent University Guarantees Premium-Quality Study Programmes

Ghent University aims for a permanent quality culture based on the following principles:

trust in the expertise held by study programmes and faculties;
shared ownership that facilitates and stimulates the faculties’ and study programmes’ self-management;
continued improvement of education;
efficient tools that support an evidence-based education policy;
lean administrative processes according to the principles of “Enlightened University” (Dutch: UGent Verlicht).

A description of how Ghent University maintains a continuous focus on quality assurance and quality culture can be found here.

International joint programmes are assessed according to the European Approach for Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes.

Contributors to Premium-Quality Education

Students

Ghent University has a long-standing tradition of student involvement. In 2016, this involvement was highly and explicitly commended by the institutional review committee and was also highlighted as a strength by the international committee in the 2022 Institutional Review.

At Ghent University, student contribution to premium-quality education can take different forms:

individual students make themselves heard in annual surveys;
student representatives contribute to and participate in the decision-making process with regard to education at different levels (at university level, at faculty level and at the level of the study programme);
in the period 2020-2023 (Quality Conduct 2.0), focus group discussions were systematically held at UGent's study programmes as part of the student reflection.

Lecturers

Ghent University lecturers are inspired and enthusiastic teachers with a self-reflective attitude to their teaching and assessment practice. An incentive for this self-reflection is provided by the annual course feedback by students.

Ghent University offers its lecturers a wide range of professional development initiatives, including basic and in-depth professional development initiatives and online education tips.

That way, Ghent University creates an inspiring working and learning environment for its (newly-appointed) lecturers.

A Ghent University lecturer’s teaching assignment is versatile and dynamic:

teaching practice: Ghent University lecturers consider their teaching assignment as important as their research assignment;
education development: Ghent University lecturers contribute to shaping their study programme in a constructive manner, either as part of the teaching team, or as member of the Study Programme Committee;
education policy: Ghent University lecturers are actively involved in policy-making and quality assurance within their study programme, their faculty, or the institutional governing bodies.

Study Programmes

Every Ghent University study programme has a Study Programme Committee (PC): the PC is a consultation body consisting of lecturers and students. The Programme Committee is responsible for drawing up the study programme’s education policy. It guarantees an efficient organisation of the teaching practice. As such, the PC is a crucial element of quality assurance.

The PC has at its disposal a variety of instruments to monitor the study programme’s quality:

the Education Monitor takes the form of online dashboard for education policy. The tool contains a programme-specific set of operational objectives and is used for monitoring programme content, quality assurance processes and university-wide policy lines. The Education Monitor enables study programmes to perform a self-evaluation, which in turn, results into a quality improvement plan;
in order to substantiate the self-evaluation, the PC analyses data provided directly into the Education Monitor by Ghent University’s Business Intelligence System (UGI, in Dutch);
the PC regularly and systematically collects and interprets feedback from both its internal (students, lecturers) as well as its external (alumni, occupational field, international peers) stakeholders. This feedback is crucial in guaranteeing our study programmes’ evidence-based nature, their alignment with international standards, and our alumni’s excellent professional qualifications, employability and exit level.

Faculties

Quality assurance at Ghent University is a joint project, in which the faculty plays an essential part as partner of the institutional university services. The different existing consultation structures (Education Council, Annual Quality Meetings, EQCU Meetings, …) confirm and strengthen the partnership between Ghent University’s eleven faculties and the Department of Educational Policy (Dutch: Directie Onderwijsaangelegenheden – DOWA).

The faculty provides its study programmes with education support services, and monitors their quality assurance processes.

The faculty

translates institutional policy lines into faculty-specific measures and guidelines;
actively promotes the professional development of its lecturers and study programmes;
facilitates the exchange of good practices.

DOWA

The Department of Educational Policy (Dutch: DOWA) develops university-wide education policy lines and education support services and tools, and follows up their implementation in close collaboration with all stakeholder parties. DOWA plays a mediating role by disseminating good practices and experiences across study programme and faculty boundaries.

Using the Central Education Monitor (in Dutch), DOWA carries out a critical reflection, scrutinizing the general quality culture and its own operational objectives.

The Education Quality Board

Since 2015, the Education Quality Board (EQB) has been Ghent University’s specialist executive body responsible for monitoring the efficiency of quality assurance processes and guaranteeing the quality of our study programmes.

Specifically, the EQB:

takes on the task of the external review commissions of old, and uses its helicopter view to monitor all of Ghent University’s study programmes;
will carry out a once-only screening of all the Education Monitors in the years 2020-2024 in order to gain clear insight into the study programmes’ quality culture and improvement capacity;
will pass a Quality Assurance Resolution (positive, positive resolution with a compulsory referral to tailored coaching programme, negative) on every study programme’s quality and quality culture, based on the screening mentioned above;
systematically publishes public information on our study programmes’ quality of education to comply with the public accountability laid down by decree.

In other words, the EQB is the governing body responsible for closing the quality cycle at top level. Its composition combines complementary expertise from within our own ranks (professorial staff, assistant academic staff, administrative and technical staff) and from without (external experts).

Occupational field, Alumni and International Partner Programmes

External stakeholder input is a crucial element in our study programmes’ quality assurance. Several external stakeholder parties are surveyed systematically for feedback:

by means of an occupational field committee or other advisory bodies, study programmes survey companies and other organisations about the exit level and professional qualifications that are expected of our alumni. These external parties also give information about new tendencies in their respective disciplines;
by means of focus group discussions or online surveys, study programmes gauge their alumni’s opinion on the (quality of the) programme they completed;
Ghent University study programmes have a strong international focus: at least every 6 years and/or in case of a major curricular revision, our study programmes perform a programme review by inviting several high-profile international peers to review the study programme content quality.