Exams and feedback
Study places
Looking for a good place to study (information in Dutch)?
'Student in Gent' will take care of it for you: select your location and fix your time slot. That way you can be sure of your place.
Practical organization of exams
Number of exams
A maximum of 2 exam sessions can take place per course unit, e.g. 1 theoretical and 1 on practicals and exercises or e.g. one written and one oral, even if there are multiple instructors.
The examination sessions must be consecutive, without interruption by examinations on other course units. Exceptions to this rule may be made in consultation with the faculty education director on very rare occasions and only for organizational reasons.
Spread of examinations over the examination period
An examination schedule is prepared for each model year in consultation with student representatives.
The timetable must be designed in such a way that each student in a model course for the compulsory course units has sufficient time to prepare for the examinations and that the questioning is spread fairly over the entire examination period.
- Exams can take place between 8 am and 8:30 pm.
- An exam should last no more than 4 hours at a time.
- There are never exams on Sundays or holidays.
Examination Regulations / Examination Schedule
For each examination period, a detailed exam timetables shall be prepared setting forth the date, place, and starting time for all examinations. The schedule shall be published electronically no later than
Academic year 2023-2024:
- March 22, 2024 for the second-term examination period
- July 17, 2024 for the resit examination period
Academic year 2024-2025:
- November 29, 2024 for the first-term examination period
- March 21, 2025 for the second-term examination period
- July 16, 2025 for the resit examination period
Students and examiners are expected to comply with the examination regulations.
If you do not show up at the designated time without a legitimate reason, you will be considered absent.
Public access
Any student who deems it necessary may request the presence of an observer at the oral examination (not, however, a student who is to be examined by the examiner concerned in the same academic year, nor a relative by blood or marriage up to the third degree, nor anyone with whom the student has a personal involvement).
The student notifies the chair of the examination committee and the faculty ombudsperson at least 7 days before the examination. The examiner may ask a member of the academic staff to attend the examination.
I will not be attending the exam or evaluation time, what should I do?
You must report any absence to the exam secretariat, usually your Faculty Student Administration (FSA), as soon as possible and no later than the day of the exam.
If you decide not to take an exam, you will lose an exam opportunity. Thus, you do deprive yourself of the opportunity to gain exam experience. By participating anyway, you will gain insight into the types of questions asked during an exam and how the exam proceeds.
So don't decide too quickly and watch out for panic decisions, even if you are inadequately prepared!
If you are ill or have another legitimate reason for being absent, you must provide the exam secretariat with the original proof as soon as possible and no later than 3 working days after the exam in question. We will then consider whether it is still possible to make up the exam time.
More info about illness and medical certificate
Can I reschedule/spread exams?
Spreading exams is only possible for working students and students with a special status. If you do not have a special status or are not a working student, you cannot decide to spread exams yourself but are bound by the exam regulations.
When did I pass?
You have passed a course if you have obtained at least 10/20 or 'pass' for all course units or have obtained an exemption.
In some cases, the examination committee can decide to tolerate you ('deliberate') at the end of the academic year. Specific tolerance rules ('deliberation rules') apply to this.
How will I know if I have passed?
Announcing your exam grades and/or deliberation decisions is officially called 'proclamation'. This is done via an (electronic) Transcript of Records.
When you graduate as a Master, a Graduation Ceremony follows.
Feedback and access to your exam
After the exams, you can get feedback from the responsible teachers or their designated persons during the feedback period or after the release of the exam results. You also have the right to review your exam. The dates of the feedback moments will be announced at the beginning of the examination period.
Receiving feedback on your evaluation is a valuable learning opportunity, especially for exams in which you did not pass. Therefore, try to take advantage of this as much as possible.
You can visit the Monitoring service afterwards for a conversation about study progress and/or study approach.
You are also entitled to interim feedback and inspection as soon as possible for assignments and papers in the context of non-periodic evaluation and partial exams, including outside the feedback period.
If for legitimate reasons you were absent at the scheduled feedback time, it is possible, upon agreement with the instructor, to receive feedback or at least review of your exam at another time within or outside the feedback period involved.
No feedback or inspection is provided to third parties.
Copy right
You are entitled to a copy of your exam after feedback or inspection of your exam.
However, UGent will not apply the right to an examination copy for examination questions that are subject to copyright. This is for example the case for multiple choice questions and worked out cases where it can be shown that an additional intellectual creation was made, on top of the learning material the students received.
You do always have the right to your own answers.
Procedure:
If you are a student and would like an exam copy, you must request it within 7 calendar days of the feedback event.
The request must be made using an application form via your personal UGent account and is addressed to the instructor responsible for the course unit in question.
The burden of proof for timely application is on you, which means that if in doubt, you will need to be able to prove that you mailed the application in a timely manner.
The instructor responsible or a staff member mandated by the instructor will let you know when the copy can be picked up and within a reasonable amount of time (max. 20 days).
You can then pick up the copy within 20 days.
When picking up the exam copy, you need to bring the printed and signed application and only upon submission of the signed application will you receive the exam copy (free of charge).
The examination copy should, as the Codex Higher Education stipulates, be treated personally and confidentially and only in function of your own educational career. Any abuse (e.g. distribution of the copy) may result in a sanction. This is also explicitly mentioned on the application form.
Will I get a retake?
Per course unit, you will have 2x opportunities to take exams: during the exam period in the 1st or 2nd semester and during the resit examination period.
You may retake any course unit for which you did not obtain a 10/20 and therefore a credit certificate during the first-semester examination period or second-semester examination period (excluding exemptions and previously earned credits) during the resit examination period.
Thus, you cannot retake an exam of a subject for which you have earned a credit certificate.
If you did not obtain a credit certificate for all course units of a deliberation package in September, you can redo them in the next academic year and then you have another 2 chances (examination periods). However, this is subject to a number of conditions in the context of your study progress and learning account.
More info about resit examinations (herexamens) (information in Dutch)