Educational concept

The Artevelde University of Applied Sciences educates students to be competent professionals with good professional opportunities. We use a learning environment that stimulates students to think, act and feel. Both our students and lecturers are passionate about what they do. Apart from their subject-related professional skills, our graduates have also received a broad education and they are enthusiastic to be lifelong learners. They are willing to face new societal challenges and can come up with creative and innovative solutions.

The Artevelde University of Applied Sciences stimulates authenticity and entrepreneurial spirit for students and lecturers. Our education helps them to reflect on their own strengths and weaknesses. From our trust in people’s capability of self-development, the university of applied sciences has high expectations and offers people the opportunity to become the person they can be (as a consequence of their training, experience and capacity to learn) and want to be (because of their motivation and willingness). If you believe in who you are as a person, you will also feel confident as a student, employer or employee. Our attention to personal development creates meaningfulness, self-realisation and well-being.

The Artevelde University of Applied Sciences challenges students and lecturers to look beyond their immediate environment. Within the framework of the degree programme, it is our education that connects them with the rest of the world. Our lecturers fulfil an exemplary role in a world with daily challenges of diversity, globalisation, digitalisation and ecology. They are honest, care about the environment and about the social, economic and organisational well-being and they treat other cultures in a respectful manner. We encourage our students to react with empathy and to engage themselves in local or international cooperation.

Scientific evidence and meaningful content form the basis of our degree programmes. The Artevelde University of Applied Sciences wants to provide its students with qualitative insights, skills and attitudes. Primarily it is our pedagogical, didactical and subject-matter experts or lecturers who will make this possible. Further our interaction with the business world and our internship companies give our students the opportunity to put theory into practice and to let them have a first experience with the newest insights, technologies and methods. Our libraries, practical classrooms and digital learning environment enable the use of a diverse range of teaching methods and methods of evaluation and assessment.

The Artevelde University of Applied Sciences is a dynamic centre of expertise which makes existing knowledge and insights available, but it also creates new knowledge, insights and products. Students are involved in this co-creation during educational activities, research, project work and on-the-job training. Our passion for qualitative content and a continuing search for new and relevant insights result in an attitude of lifelong learning through the interaction between research and education. At the Artevelde University of Applied Sciences, we strive for specific learning pathways for research competencies in all vocational bachelor's degree programmes. At the same time, lecturers receive information, advice and coaching on how they can introduce research-oriented methods in the programme.

The Artevelde University of Applied Sciences trains students into adopting a respectful attitude towards different views when discovering and creating new insights and to reflect on the quality and relevance of these views.

Our goal-oriented learning environment offers the students a structural framework and stimulates them to achieve goals in a challenging context of their own choice.

The Artevelde University of Applied Sciences and its programmes focus on transparent and coherent study programmes that guide our students through their education. For lecturers, these form the connection between their own course unit and the rest of the study programme, as well as society and the professional world. Lecturers will always try to link the learning content to the future profession of the students.

The programme profiles contain carefully constructed learning pathways and define the desired learning results. The ECTS sheets and course guide provide the students with correct information about what is expected from them. The educational concept, the assessment policy, strategic goals and daily practice are intertwined to create a coherent view.

The Artevelde University of Applied Sciences combines this structure with room for individual choices to facilitate the students’ autonomy. No freedom without boundaries. Students are trained to look at themselves in a critical and reflective manner and to think and act goal-oriented so they can take control of their own professional, personal and social development.

A learning environment that aims at co-creation invites students to lifelong and meaningful learning.

Co-creation occurs when different parties (students, lecturers, staff members, the business world and society) jointly look for solutions to complex problems. This has a positive influence on the motivation of all parties involved as they can contribute in their own way and with their own talents and specialisation to achieve a mutually valued outcome and really make a difference. Co-creation stimulates the creativity and the initiative of these parties as they are challenged to spot opportunities, approach problems from a different angle and come up with innovative alternatives.

The ‘learning by developing’-concept contains a method to achieve co-creation. New skills and knowledge are developed in authentical research and development projects that aim at innovation and problem-solving. The interdisciplinary cooperation between all parties involved is a crucial factor in this process.

The emphasis on the social and active process that learning involves automatically implies the importance of language in this process. Starting from the idea that language connects people, lecturers try to stimulate the linguistic development of the students in their classes. Certain course units, optional study tracks and programmes are taught in a foreign language. That way we provide our students with a better chance to study or work abroad. Incoming students and staff bring the world into our university of applied sciences and next to that, we stimulate international co-creation through education, research and services.

In a co-creative environment the possibility to share knowledge gains importance. Therefore the Artevelde University of Applied Sciences invests in the implementation of educational technology. Through blended learning, students are offered more opportunities to profound processing of knowledge, practice skills, communication and cooperation with lecturers, fellow students and partners nearby and abroad. This way graduates are able to participate actively in a fast-evolving, highly technological, mediatised and networked knowledge society.

A learning environment which pays attention to the existing diversity among the students uses respect and strength to connect.

At Artevelde University of Applied Sciences, we believe diversity is an asset. Therefore we invest in an accessible learning environment and we use learning and evaluation methods as a basis for differentiation. All staff members take on an exemplary role in dealing with diversity. We will provide all of our students with equal opportunities to gain information, solve problems, make well-considered choices and participate in education.

Whenever possible and desirable our programmes offer diverse study tracks (distance learning, dual learning, modular learning ...) and reasonable modifications. We offer students the opportunity to define their own professional identity through optional course units, extracurricular course units and activities, internationalisation@home or during training or an internship abroad.

The Artevelde University of Applied Sciences encourages its students by focusing on values, strengths, goals and needs. Apart from a well-known focus on remediation and correction, we choose to use strengths as a working basis.

Through individual coaching, the students are free to ask for advice and receive guidance and coaching. Our guidance aims at increasing the autonomy and well-being of the students. Individual guidance at the Artevelde University of Applied Sciences tries to reduce economical, physical and psychological obstacles to education on the one hand and stimulate remediation of necessary skills and reflection through study track coaching.

In a warm and appreciative environment, our students and lecturers feel encouraged to dedicate themselves completely. They are enthusiastic to practice, learn and develop further.