During its meeting on 31 May 2024, the Board of Governors approved the Education and Examination Code for the 2024-2025 academic year.

Find out here what are the most notable changes and relevant additions for lecturers.

Plagiarism and AI Tools

Considering the rapid evolutions in the field of GenAI, it is realistic to assume that students will make use of these tools at some point. Therefore their use is no longer a priori banned, unless the lecturer explicitly decides otherwise (cf. Art. 78). 

Study Progress Measures

Following last year’s adjustments to the study progress measures, the 2024-2025 Education and Examination Code contains several clarifications. The main points are:

• from now on, the Education and Examination Code distinguishes between threshold conditions (study progress of 100% in the first Bachelor’s year within two academic years) and binding conditions (study progress of at least 50%) (cf. Art. 24). The former denotes the new study progress measures laid down by law and applies to first enrollers in a Bachelor's programme. The latter refers to the binding conditions that have been in place at Ghent University for a long time now.  This distinction serves to clarify the difference between the two study progress measures.
• the Education and Examination Code, Article 30 comprises the term initial set of course units to denote the actual threshold that is used to calculate the threshold condition: a study progress of 100% in the first Bachelor’s year.  The initial set of course units applies to ‘regular’ students enrolled in the first standard track year (who have to take up 60 ECTS) as well as to students with a “reduced curriculum” based on their special status.

Course Sheet

The ‘Study Materials and Additional Costs’ section has been changed to ‘Study Materials’ on the Study Guide Website (Art. 41). The terms ‘teaching and study materials’ are now used throughout, and replace the previous terms ‘learning and course materials’ (in art. 47§ 5§6). 

Provisions for Teaching Activities

MS Teams has a transcription functionality, which means that conversations (e.g. oral defences) can be transcribed automatically. That is not always authorised.  Hence, the Education and Examination Code now clearly states that such transcriptions are not allowed, in analogy with unauthorised audio and video recordings (cf. Art. 47§5).

Exam Time

There has been confusion about the exam time as displayed in TimeEdit or OASIS vs. the actual exam time as announced by the lecturer in class or on Ufora. The Education and Examination Code now states explicitly that the duration of the exam displayed in the scheduling app is at all times subordinate to the real duration of the exam, as communicated by the lecturer-in-charge at the start of the exam at the latest (cf. art. 54).

Reconsideration of Examination Decisions

The Education and Examination Code clarifies that material errors to the student’s advantage whereupon the student is awarded an exam mark for a course unit without having participated in any assessment can be rectified at all times (cf. art. 65). 

Passing a Study Programme

In recent years, students have tried to obtain their Master’s diploma (having passed all the course units in the Master's programme), without having passed the academic bridging programme or preparatory programme. They could not pass the academic bridging programme or preparatory programme because they had not taken up the remaining course units in their personal curriculum.  To avoid having to make a deliberation decision for a student who has not taken up all of their remaining course units upon their most recent enrolment, we have reorganised Article 71.

Faculty Quality Assurance Committee (Dutch: Commissie Kwaliteitszorg Onderwijs - CKO) 

It is common practice to include in the Quality Assurance Committee at least every Programme Committee chair (of an initial Ghent University study programme). This has now been included in the Education and Examination Code, which is important in light of the Quality Conduct 3.0 and the quality assurance processes it comprises (cf. 82).