There is at the pan-university level an Gender Action Plan. At the faculty level, gender and diversity statistics are generated each year for undergraduates, graduates and staff members.

Statistics

Gender statistics at our university being made since 2004, have shown a strong gender discrepancy horizontally as well as vertically. The first imbalance turned up disciplinary, in which disciplines within the so-called hard sciences (engineering and architecture) indicated a predominance of male students in contrast with the so-called soft sciences disciplines (Psychology and Pedagogy) who are attesting an overweight of female students.

However the overall intake of female students at our university reaches 58%. Although actions to equate gender segregation and further studies to map the various intake streams with intersectional statistics will be needed, the Ghent Universities Gender Plan decided to set the dominant focus of actions upon the vertical gender discrepancy.

This second focus or vertically gender discrepancy within university Ghent has been localized trough staff policy. Even in the so-called soft study disciplines demonstrating an overweight at female students, the lecturers remained mainly male (4 out of 5). Therefor the focus of the gender mainstreaming has meanly been on staff management.

Gender Action Plan

Ghent University has undertaken actions aimed at gender equality since 1980. However since 2014 those actions were implemented in an integrated Gender Policy, including through Ghent University’s Gender Action Plan.

• Read more about the Gender Action Plan