Diversity policy

With its diversity policy, Ghent University Association (AUGent) aims to perform an example role and aspires to be a source of inspiration for other organisations. Every human being is unique and AUGent acknowledges, appreciates and makes use of their differences. Hence, AUGent plays a key role in the Centre of Expertise for Inclusive Higher Education (“Steunpunt Inclusief Hoger Onderwijs”) and supervises the Role Model Project (“Rolmodellenwerking”).

AUGent offers important tools to improve the access to higher education and to provide an optimal learning trajectory. It organizes an Alternative Admission Procedure for students who do not meet the general admission requirements for a Bachelor programme. The Recognition of Previously Acquired Competencies (RPAC) offers possibilities to students who have relevant learning or working experience.

AUGent pursues an active diversity policy: this entails recognising, acknowledging and using the unique competencies and characteristics of all students and staff members. It also includes offering possibilities to deploy their talents successfully and allow them to thrive. AUGent aims to make use of all skills in an optimal way and to help to develop them by thoughtfully pursuing a structural and inclusive diversity policy.

The intake, success rate and outflow of each individual student is an important topic for AUGent. In each fase in the process, we focus on students from underrepresented groups. We firmly believe that our student population should be a representation of society.
The needs of our time are to deal with a super divers society in a positive manner. Moreover, every talent counts. Society expects of education that it delivers a larger number of highly educated people in order to realise the “knowledge society”.

We want to offer all students of every of our member institutions the opportunity to flourish. In order to do so, our staff members pay attention to didactic obstacles that could be an impediment. These obstacles often arise from an interaction between personal characteristics of the student, his social and educational environment, and could be related to his socio-economic status, linguistic skills and other initial competencies, (functional) disability, gender or interculturality.

Through the concept of “Universal Design”, the member institutions of AUGent aim to create an accessible educational context and service that will enable all students to develop their talent. They also provide a dynamic approach to eliminate specific impediments which result from the interaction between characteristics of the environment and of diversity. Despite the aim for an inclusive policy, it is possible that complementary measures need to be taken regarding specific characteristics of people and target groups.

The member institutions of AUGent want to support students in order to make a well motivated study choice that suits them. This is only possible by making a realistic assessment of their own competencies, talents and interests on the one hand, and the expected and aspired competencies of the educational programmes on the other.