International facts and figures

International students

Each year more and more international students choose Ghent University for their study. More than 7.400 foreign students (15% of the total student population), including exchange students, studied at Ghent University during academic year 2023-2024.

The top 5 of European countries of origin are the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Germany, and France. The non-EU countries are represented by a strong contingency from Asia: China, South-Korea, Iran, Turkey and India.

Receiving the bulk of foreign students are the faculties of Sciences, Engineering and Architecture and Bioscience Engineering.

Erasmus Exchange students

The Erasmus+ Programme is the most widely known programme for student and staff mobility in Europe and is the major funding programme for exchanges at Ghent University.

During the academic year 2023-2024 2.337 Ghent University students spent part of their study abroad (1.235 of them in the framework of Erasmus+). The most prominent destinations are The Netherlands, France, Italy, Germany and Spain.

Every year Ghent University also welcomes incoming exchange students.  In 2023-2024 more than 1.744 exchange students  from 63 countries choose Ghent University for their study. Top countries of origin are Italy, Spain, Germany, France and China.

PhD

In 2023-2024 Ghent University hosts 5.700 PhD students of whom 47 % had a non-Belgian nationality.

Our international PhD students are mostly active in the exact sciences: Engineering and Architecture, Bioscience Engineering  and Sciences are the dominant faculties. The majority originates from China, Italy, Iran, the Netherlands and Ethiopia.

International employees

Ghent University employs around 9.500 and 6.000 staff members are employed at the University Hospital. Up to 20% of this number is of a non-Belgian nationality.

Rankings

What do rankings mean? How does Ghent University perform? Further reading...