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Registration and enrolment

Key dates

  • Submission of the application for the first enrolment for the doctorate:
    finalisation 10 calendar days prior to the Faculty Council meeting in which the application will be decided on
  • Re-enrolment and final enrolment:
    within the annual enrolment period
  • Request to revise your enrolment:
    10 calendar days prior to the Faculty Council meeting in which the request to revise will be decided on

First enrolment

First, it is necessary to be awarded admission to the first enrolment for the doctorate by the faculty. Holders of a Belgian or international master’s degree follow the same procedure.

How?

  • Your administrative supervisor responsible (or proxy) will start the procedure via Oasis. You will receive an email after your supervisor has entered all the necessary information about the doctorate (topic, supervisors, type of funding, etc.).
  • You are to check this data and add any additional information.
  • After all the information and documents have been added to Oasis, your supervisor will submit the electronic application to the faculty. The Faculty Student Administration (FSA) will present your application to the Faculty Council and will communicate the decision to you afterwards.

  • If you wish to enrol for a joint PhD, you need to follow a number of additional guidelines. You can read the full procedure here.

  • If you wish to enrol for an interdisciplinary doctorate, you need to follow a number of additional guidelines. You can read the full procedure here.

The deadline for completing your application in Oasis is no later than 10 calendar days before the Faculty Council. The Faculty Board meeting dates can be found on the faculty website. On the basis of the submitted documents, the Faculty Council will formulate a positive or negative recommendation about your application for the doctorate.

Doctorate in the Arts. With this type of doctorate, please note that the Faculty Council can only decide about an application for first enrolment if the School of Arts of University College Ghent has given its recommendation.

The decision of the Faculty Council will be communicated to you by email. The recommendation of the Faculty Council may make the doctoral training programme mandatory.

  • If the recommendation is positive, you will receive an email detailing how to complete your enrolment. Holders of an international degree will receive a Letter of Admission detailing how to complete the enrolment.
  • If the recommendation is negative, you will need to make the necessary adjustments. If applicable, your application will be dealt with at the next Faculty Council meeting.

Upon first enrolment, you need to pay half of the regular tuition fee.

Annual re-enrolment

You are required to re-enrol every academic year until you have successfully defended your doctoral dissertation. This requirement applies to all doctoral students, regardless of their type of appointment and funding.

Please note: based on the recommendation of the members of your doctoral advisory committee (DBC), your administrative supervisor responsible is to draw up a favourable report on your self-reflection report before you are allowed to re-enrol.

  • After consulting with the Special Doctoral Committee, the dean will decide whether or not the doctoral student is allowed to enrol for the following academic year in case of an unfavourable report. This decision is taken no later than 60 calendar days.
  • If a supervisor declares that he/she no longer wishes to supervise a doctorate, and if the research may be completed within a reasonable time span, the administrative supervisor responsible will draw up an unfavourable report. In this case, the Special Doctoral Committee will request information from the members of the doctoral advisory committee (DBC). It will recommend a new supervisor and the Faculty Council will decide whether or not to appoint him/her.

The annual re-enrolment is free and takes place within the regular period of enrolment (every year from 15 June and before 1 October). Outside this period you must comply with the regulations for late enrolment and you need to contact the Doctoral Schools (doctoralschool@ugent.be) to re-enrol.

Final enrolment

Students are also required to enrol in the year in which they will defend their dissertation. They can only enrol for the doctoral examination if they are enrolled as a doctoral student at that time. Students need to be enrolled for the current academic year at the time of their public defence. During the last period of enrolment, you need to pay the remaining tuition fee. You will receive a payment notification after you have been granted permission to defend your dissertation in public. Please ensure rapid payment: this will increase your chances that you will immediately receive your doctoral certificate after the successful public defence of your dissertation.

Making changes to your enrolment

It is possible that you will sometimes need to make changes to your enrolment (changes to the intended doctoral title or the language in which the dissertation will be written, replacement of the supervisor, etc.). Any changes to the details of your enrolment need to be officially registered.

Regarding changes to the intended doctoral title within the same faculty, you need to contact the Central Student Administration. If the intended doctoral title is offered at a different faculty, you need to follow the procedure of ‘first enrolment’ again. Your administrative supervisor responsible will indicate in Oasis that you were already enrolled as a doctoral student.

Changes to the supervisor, the doctoral advisory committee (DBC), the language in which the dissertation will be written, the topic or research topic. Please fill in the application form Changes. You need to deliver this form to the Faculty Student Administration (FSA) via fsa.lw@ugent.be (at least 10 calendar days prior to the Faculty Board). The FSA will present the changes to the Faculty Council.

Requests to changes may be submitted at any time. Following the Faculty Council’s decision, the Faculty Student Administration (FSA) will contact you via email.

Doctorate in the Arts. The Faculty Council can only decide about an application to change the enrolment if the School of Arts of University College Ghent has given its recommendation.

Tuition fee and bench fee

Tuition fee

Doctoral students are to re-enrol for the doctorate and the doctoral training programme every year. They need to pay half of the regular tuition fee upon first enrolment. All interim enrolments are free. Doctoral students are invited to pay the remaining tuition fee following the submission of their doctorate.

Bench fee

To prevent students from applying for the doctorate without having the necessary funds, Ghent University has introduced a bench feeguideline from the 2017-2018 academic year onwards: at the start of each academic year, all doctoral students are to pay a benchfee of EUR 4,480, except those who are funded by Ghent University, the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) or VLIR-UOS.

The supervisor will use the bulk of this contribution to enable students to conduct high-quality research (use of study material, laboratory, equipment, participation in conferences or seminars, etc.).

The supervisor may exempt the doctoral student from paying the bench fee (request via the enrolment application in Oasis). Doctoral students who receive a bench fee via (external) funding, are generally not exempted.