Universiteit Gent

Universiteit Gent (Dutch: Universiteit Gent, abbreviated as UGent) is a Dutch-speaking public university located in Gent, Belgium. It is one of the larger Flemish universities, consisting of 32,000 students and 7,100 staff members. The current rector is Paul Van Cauwenberge.

Universiteit Gent was established in 1817 by King William I of the Netherlands. After the Belgian revolution of 1830, it was administered by the newly-formed Belgian state. French became the academic language until 1930, when Ghent University became the first Dutch-speaking university in Belgium. In 1991, the university was granted major autonomy and changed its name from State University of Ghent (Dutch: Rijksuniversiteit Gent , abbreviated as RUG) to its current name.

Universiteit Gent

The Universiteit Gent  was opened on 9 October 1817, with JC van Rotterdam serving as the first rector. In the first year, it had 190 students and 16 professors. The original four faculties consisted of Humanities (Letters), Law, Medicine and Science, and the language of instruction was Latin. The university was founded by King William I as part of a policy to stem the intellectual and academic lag in the southern part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, later to become Belgium. The university in Liège was founded as part of the same movement.

After peaking at a student population of 414, the number of students declined quickly following the Belgian Revolution. At this time, the faculties of Humanities and Science were broken off of the university, but they were restored five years later, in 1835.

Library
The Universiteit Gent library network comprises the University Library as a central unit, 9 faculty libraries and some 200 departmental and seminar libraries, spread all over Ghent. In 2004 a reorganisation proposal was adopted focussing on the merging of small libraries into bigger entities.

Universiteit Gent

Courses Offered
Graduate Programs

• PhD Courses
• MBA Courses

Faculty

• Faculty of Arts and Philosophy
• Faculty of Law
• Faculty of Sciences
• Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
• Faculty of Engineering
• Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
• Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
• Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences
• Faculty of Bio-science Engineering
• Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences
• Faculty of Political and Social Sciences

Facilities

• UGent digital
• Food and drinks
• Sports Centre
• Bicycle rent and repair
• Child care
• Libraries and archive
• Language courses
• Accommodation
• Job Service for Students
• Culture and leisure
• Hall hiring and Congress Centre

Contact Details
Universiteit Gent
Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 25
B – 9000 Ghent
Belgium
tel. +32 (0)9 264 31 11
Universiteit Gent Official Website: http://www.ugent.be/en