Your own laptop
General minimum requirements
For education at Ghent University you will need a laptop. For most courses a basic laptop in good working order will be sufficient.
- Intel processor and Windows 11
- For MS Office applications and browsing: a processor with a passmark score of at least 3000. For specific software, you sometimes need a more powerful processor, check this with your faculty.
- ARM-based processors such as Snapdragon are strongly discouraged due to compatibility issues with Windows software to be used in different courses. Devices equipped with an ARM CPU cannot print via the Ricoh print infrastructure at UGent because no drivers exist for this CPU architecture (on such devices, printing can only be done via a workaround).
- Disk space: SSD of 512GB
- Memory: 16GB RAM
- Wireless wifi connection
- Webcam
Tip: Also check Microsoft's system requirements for Windows 11.
Faculty minimum requirements
Some courses require a more advanced model. Students taking these courses are informed of this normally.
- Faculty of Bioscience Engineering
- Faculty of Engineering and Architecture
- Faculty of Sciences
- Department of Translation, Interpreting and Communication
Suppliers
The suppliers below specialise in offering laptops for students and can be used as a starting point in your search:
Both suppliers have formulas where you can pay by instalments.
Financing a new laptop
Need a laptop, printer or other sustainable study material? This can certainly take a heavy bite out of your budget at the beginning of the academic year. The Social Service can help you with this!
There are options for short-term or long-term interest-free loans. Depending on your financial situation, you may even be eligible for a study grant that you do not have to pay back. Ghent University offers various options for student grants for students through the Student Social Service. Be sure to take a moment to view these options.
Software platforms
As a student at UGent, you can:
- Use Microsoft 365 for free, including Office programs (such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote), collaboration tools (such as Teams and SharePoint) and cloud storage (e.g., 1 TB of storage space in OneDrive for work or school).
- Install numerous applications on your own device via Academic Software.
- Use a wide range of applications via Athena without having to install them on your own device first.