Faculty Vademecum 2023-2024

The Faculty Addendum/Vademecum contains the internal regulations of the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering that supplement articles in the Education and Examination Code.

Articles from the Education and Examination Code without faculty addenda are fully applicable. Both this code and the Faculty Addendum are subject to changes. Each academic year changes to the Faculty Addendum are presented to the Faculty Board.

Organization of the academic year (Education and Examination Code art. 1-4)

Art. 2 The academic calendar

§6: At the faculty of Bioscience Engineering, examinations outside the examination periods can be organized for incoming and outgoing exchange students. This is only possible with the approval of the lecturer in charge and after positive advice of the Faculty Student Administration. The student delivers this approval of the lecturer to the Faculty Student Administration.

At the faculty of Bioscience Engineering, examinations outside the examination periods can be organized for summer schools. No examinations outside the examination periods can be organized for preparatory programmes, linking programmes, Erasmus Mundus programmes and postgraduate programmes.

Admission Requirements (Education and Examination Code art. 5-14)

Art. 6 Admission requirements for Master's programmes

§2: The requirements for Master's programmes in English can be found on the Minerva Infosite.

Art. 10 Language requirements

The requirements are stated in this document: aangepaste taaltoelatingsvoorwaarden (sorry, Dutch only...)

Enrolment (Education and Examination Code art. 15-26)

Art. 23 Enrolment for Multiple Study Programs

  • §1-§2: a student who wants to enrol for more than one study programme during on and the same academic year must meet the conditions on the page "Personalized Learning Track".
  • §3: a student who wants to enrol for an external GIT during on and the same academic year must meet the conditions on the page "Personalized Learning Track".

Art. 26 Working Student Status

Following arrangements apply for all study programmes at the faculty of Bioscience Engineering. By mutual agreement between the responsible lecturer and the student who has working student status following facilities may be awarded:

  • having one or several examinations rescheduled to a different time in the same academic year
  • being given an alternative time for feedback

Contracts (Education and Examination Code art. 27-34)

Art. 29 Exemptions and Study Load Reduction

Holders of credit certificates, of previously acquired qualifications (Eerder Verworven Kwalificaties, EVK) or of an aptitude certificate on the grounds of previously acquired competencies (Eerder Verworven Competenties, EVC), may request the Curriculum Committee to be exempted from certain course units of the study programme in question, in accordance with the procedures described on the page "Exemptions".

Art. 30 The Student's Curriculum

§4: Students submit a curriculum proposal via OASIS according to the Faculty guidelines and deadlines

  • §5: Any requests to change an established curriculum (i.e. adding and/or removing course units) need to be submitted by the students to the Curriculum Committee before 15 November for first-term course units and before 1 March for second-term and full-year course units, respectively. The procedure is described on the pages "Curriculumproces" and "Personalized Learning Track"
  • §6: Students may file an appeal against an unfavourable decision on their application concerning the composition of a curriculum. They may file this appeal with the appeals body designated for this purpose by the FacultyCouncil. At the FBE this appeals body is the Faculty Office (excluding the faculty Director of Studies). The appeal
    is to be filed with the Dean by means of a dated and signed petition that is sent by registered post on pain of inadmissibility of the appeal (Dean Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Coupure links 653, 9000 Gent). At the same time, the student should inform the Dean by sending him an electronic version of this letter by e-mail
    (decaan.fbw@ugent.be).

Art. 31 Contracts to Obtain Credits

Read the procedure on the web page Credit Contract.

Art. 32 Curriculum Committee

Samenstelling curriculumcommissie (sorry, Dutch only)

Faculty principles about studying abroad

Studying abroad

Study Programme Committee (Education and Examination Code art.35)

Art. 35 Composition and Operation of the Study Programme Committee

Samenstelling van de opleidingscommissies (sorry, Dutch only)

Study programme (Education and Examination Code art. 36-39)

Art. 37 Composition of Deliberation Sets

§1: the deliberation sets are composed as follows:

  • in the Bachelor's programmes: always following the full-time standard learning track
  • in one-year Master's programmes: always following the full-time standard learning track
  • in two-year Master's programmes leading to the title of 'bio-ingenieur': deliberation sets are composed in chronological order (min 54 ECTS credits - max 66 ECTS credit per deliberation set).
  • in two-year Master's programmes not leading to the title of 'bio-ingenieur':always following the full-time standard learning track

Course unit (Education and Examination Code art. 40-47)

Art. 40 Class Time Slots and Class Schedules

§3: The FBE study programmes at Campus Schoonmeersen and Campus Kortrijk have permission from the director of the Departement of Educationals Policy to schedule class time slots according to time spans of 60 minutes instead of 90 minutes.

Art. 42 Options within Study Programme Overviews

  • Rules on composing a personal curriculum: "Curriculum Rules"
  • Procedure on submitting a personal curriculum: "Curriculumproces".
  • §5: Possibility of appeal: Students may file an appeal against an unfavourable decision on their application for the composition of a curriculum with the designated appeals body: Faculty Office. The dean is the contact person (decaan.fbw@ugent.be).

Art. 43 Master's Dissertation Course Unit

Master's dissertation

Art. 45 Language in which the Course Units are Taught

§ 1 5 ° For the Dutch FBW programs, the student can write the Master's dissertation in Dutch, English or French. No additional permission from the Faculty Board is thus needed. If the supervisor expects a Master's dissertation written in another language than Dutch, this must be announced so that the student can take this aspect into consideration when establishing his subject. The defense of the dissertation is in principle in Dutch.

Master's Dissertation

Seminar

Seminar 

Internship Course Unit

Internship 

Assessment per Course Unit (Education and Examination Code art. 48-60)

Art. 54 Examination Regulations

§5. All Faculties are required to set up a permanent Examination Office. This is the faculty student administration.

Art. 59 Evaluation of the Master’s Dissertation Course Unit

  • §1 2° The responsibility for the counselling of the Master's dissertation course unit at the FBE rests with maximum two dissertation supervisors. At least one supervisor belongs to the categories mentioned in the UGent EEC and is administratively responsible. This supervisor is also
    • associated to the FBE (or FEA for the MSc in Sustainable and Innovative Natural Resource Management or a partner institute for the MSc in Soils and Global Change, MSc in Health Management in Aquaculture en MSc in Rural Development (in case of 2 promoters, each promotor belongs to a different partner institute)))
    • or lecturer of a general course or a course belonging to a main subject  (or lecture of a major or elective course within the MSc in Sustainable
      and Innovative Natural Resource Management)

Persons without a doctoral degree but with extensive experience in the field of the master's dissertation, may also, provided thorough motivation, be admitted as supervisor.

  • § 1 5 ° For the Dutch FBW programs, the student can write the Master's dissertation in Dutch, English or French. No additional permission from the Faculty Board is thus needed. If the supervisor expects a Master's dissertation written in another language than Dutch, this must be announced so that the student can take this aspect into consideration when establishing his subject. The defense of the dissertation is in principle in Dutch.
  • §3 1° At the FBE, fellow students, professionals in the field in question, family members, friends and FBE staff are allowed to attend the defence of the Master's dissertation, upon approval of the chairman and only if the Master's Dissertation is not confidential.

Faculty procedure for remote examinations

Lecturers faced with a question of students to pass a remote exam, contact the Director of Education, who can convene an ad hoc committee (possibly digital). This committee has a varying composition, depending on the programme to which the incoming / outgoing student belongs. Permanent members are the Director of Education and the Learning path counsellor, who must ensure uniformity throughout the programmes, and also maintain a database with all concrete cases and decisions. The alternate members consist of the OC chairman, the lecturer and the ITC employee (s) involved in the case (International Office, Programme Coordinators). The authority of this committee is to handle each question and to make a well-founded decision. The starting point is that a remote exam can only be done in exceptional cases.

Appraisal per deliberation set (Education and Examination Code art. 66-69)

Art. 66 Composition of the Examination Board per deliberation set and its authority to deliberate

Samenstelling examencommissies (sorry, Dutch only)

Assesment per study programme (Education and Examination Code art. 70-74)

Art. 70 Composition and competence of the Examination Board per study programme

  • §1: Samenstelling examencommissies (sorry, Dutch only)
  • §3: For taking examination-relation disciplinary decisions, delegation of competence is given to the chairman and the secretary of the Examination Board per study programme, complemented with the academic secretary and the lecturer involved. In case of doubt or larger infringements, the complete Examination Board can operate.

Special circumstances (Education and Examination Code art. 75-78)

-Art. 75 Compliance with the exam regulations

 §4. Registration of absence

Art. 78 Fraud or irregularities

§1. At the FBE, the following definitions for fraud and irregulaties apply:

At the FBE, fraud is considered as any behavior of a student in the context of an examination or continuous assessment by which a correct judgement by the examiner / examination board regarding knowledge, insight and/or skills of himself or other students is wholly or partly prevented.

Following acts, next to carrying and/or using a digital or electronic tool or means of communication (EEC), are considered as fraud:

  • copy from someone;
  • all forms of verbal or non-verbal communication, except with the supervisor;
  • unauthorized use of written information sources such as cheat sheets, sections of courses, ...
  • committing plagiarism (cfr EEC article 78§2.)
  • ...

At the FBE, irregularities are considered as any infringement of the Ghent University EEC, of the Faculty Vademecum or of the rules to be followed with regard to the smooth proceedings of an examination or continuous assessment.

§2. At the FBE, the basic definition of plagiarism is not further completed or specified.

Ombuds persons (Education and Examination Code art. 79-80)

Art. 79 Faculty ombuds persons

Faculty Ombuds Person

Appeals procedure (Education and Examination Code art. 81)

No faculty addenda

Final provisions (Education and Examination Code art. 85-88)

No faculty addenda