Our current vision for education reaffirms our continued ambition at Ghent University to provide high-quality, future-oriented and socially relevant education. 

What?

This update results from a 2025 reflection exercise that brought together students, education support staff at the faculties, directors of studies, and staff from the University Service for Education and Research. The Education Council and the Board of Governors ratified the resulting vision statement. 

The vision statement defines the six updated cornerstones of Ghent University’s education policy,  followed by the 2026-2031 lines of action. While the cornerstones guide our long-term ambition for education at Ghent University, the lines of action translate that ambition into priorities for the coming years. Together, they form a shared compass for everyone contributing to our education: students, academics, support staff, alumni, and external partners.

Why?

As society evolves, geopolitics shift, and the labour market changes rapidly, we have a duty as a higher education institution to remain dynamic and critical. Our updated vision for education plays an essential part in this. With it, we reaffirm our continued ambition to provide high-quality, future-oriented, and socially relevant education. 

We also consciously choose a vision for education that allows room for innovation, dialogue and collaboration across disciplinary boundaries and roles. Together, we continue to think critically, empower one another and actively contribute to a sustainable and inclusive learning environment. In doing so, we build a university that lives up to its credo, Dare to Think, day after day. 

The Vision Statement at a Glance

“Dare to Think” and multiperspectivism are at the heart of our vision for education. This, in turn, is based on six cornerstones (“Ghent University’s Six”). While these cornerstones give direction to our long-term ambition for education, there are also eight lines of action to define that ambition into priorities for the upcoming years (CONTEXT);  

With the updated cornerstones, we respond and adapt to an education context under increasing and persistent pressure from societal evolution, a changing geopolitical landscape, and a fast-changing labour market (UPDATED CORNERSTONES);  

The eight lines of action transversally define and contribute to the six cornerstones. Together, they are a shared compass for everyone contributing to our education (LINES OF ACTION 2026-2031); 

There is no one-to-one concordance between the lines of action and a particular cornerstone (or multiple cornerstones). Various lines of action can contribute to multiple cornerstones simultaneously. We have added a concordance matrix to visualise this.