International facts and figures
International students
Each year more and more international students choose Ghent University for their study. More than 6.800 foreign students (14% of the total student population), including exchange students, studied at Ghent University during academic year 2019-2020.
The top 5 of European countries of origin are the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Germany, and France. The non-EU countries are represented by a strong contingency from Asia: China, India, Turkey and Iran.
Receiving the bulk of foreign students are the faculties of Engineering and Architecture, Science and Bioscience Engineering.
Erasmus Exchange students
The Erasmus+ Programme is the most widely known programme for student and staff mobility in Europe and is the major funding programme for exchanges at Ghent University.
During the academic year 2019-2020 more than 1.850 Ghent University students spent part of their study abroad (1.037 of them in the framework of Erasmus+). The most prominent destinations are The Netherlands, Spain, France, Germany and Italy.
Every year Ghent University also welcomes incoming exchange students. In 2019-2020 more than 1.450 exchange students from 61 countries choose Ghent University for their study. Top countries of origin are Italy, Spain, Germany, France and China.
PhD
In 2019-2020 Ghent University hosted 5.183 PhD students of whom 46 % had a non-Belgian nationality.
Our international PhD students are mostly active in the exact sciences: Bioscience Engineering, Engineering and Architecture and Sciences are the dominant faculties. They generally originate from China, the Netherlands, Italy, Iran and India.
International employees
Ghent University employs around 9.000 and 6.000 staff members are employed at the University Hospital. Up to 12% of this number is of a non-Belgian nationality.
