...for PhD candidates and students

Making an informed choice

Doctoral studies at Ghent University are open to holders of a master degree or a degree of minimum four years of study considered equivalent by the university.
Find a supervisor: Your PhD proposal needs to be accepted by the relevant faculty at Ghent University. We recommend you have a look at the faculty websites, or at the university’s research database Iweto, to see which professors cover the fields of research in which you are interested. If you have already established valuable contacts with a professor at Ghent University working in your field of interest, this may speed up the application process and may increase your chances for acceptance.
Holders of a non-Belgian degree can only be admitted after an application procedure that may take several months. Start your preparations (including applying for a visa) well in advance. In a nutshell, this procedure involves two components:

'administrative' admission (equivalence of your degree, academic background, language skills)
'academic' admission (your PhD proposal needs to be accepted by the relevant faculty). In some cases candidates may be required to do a predoctoral training programme under the supervision of a tutor assigned by the faculty.

Language of instruction - Please consider that the common language in the Doctoral Schools is English. Good language proficiency is therefore absolutely necessary and formally required.
The acceptance of your application does not guarantee any funding. We want to remind you that students who want to study at our university have to dispose of sufficient financial means to cover all expenses during the whole period of your stay.
All Phd researchers enrol as PhD students. Those who receive funding from a Flemish funding body or directly from Ghent University, will also be registered as UGent staff and must provide the necessary employment documents.