Difference between revisions of "Coming to Gent"

Revision as of 20:45, 27 March 2020

A friendly warning: Ghent is the most challenging university to study as they have a very high standard. Exams are very difficult and if you do not keep your courses up-to-date you will not pass. But don't stress too much, in Ghent it quite normal to retake exams in the summer, most students have to do it, so don't feel bad if you have to retake an exam too.

Travelling to Ghent

If you arrive by airplane you will land either in Brussel-Zaventem or in Brussel-Charleroi.

Brussel-Zaventem

In Zaventem there is a train station underneath the airport, just follow the signs and buy a ticket to Gent-Sint-Pieters at the ticket booth or at the machines next to the ticket booth. They introduced new ticket machines which are very strange if you don't have a transportation card, they don't accept credit cards or money. Only the machines inside the ticket booth office accept money, but these only accept coins, luckily there is a bill-to-coin machine next to these machines. If you buy a ticket at the machine, make sure to select the "youth Ticket" or "Go Pass 1" which are cheaper train tickets for people -26 years old. At the ticket booth, the person will automatically give you the discount if you look young. In order to know which train to take you should look it up on the official website/app of NMBS or www.belgiantrain.be. Usually you take a train to Brussel-Zuid/Brussel-Sud and there you transfer to a train headed towards Gent-Sint-Pieters. Gent has two train stations, Gent-Dampoort and Gent-Sint-Pieters. You always want to get off at Gent-Sint-Pieters. From there you can take a bus or a tram to wherever you are trying to get to. If you have no destination in mind, you can take tram 1 (red) until 'Korenmarkt', which puts you near the city center. Bus tickets are sold in the ticket machine on the tram platform (in front of the station, to the left) or in the little container placed on the platform.

Brussel-Charleroi

After landing in Charleroi, you need to take the bus TEC line A from the airport to the train station Charleroi-Sud, you can order a combined train+bus ticket online on the NMBS website (www.belgiantrain.be) or you can buy a ticket on the bus which is 6€. The bus is located on the right when you get out of the terminal and at the train station it arrives at gate 1. After this you take a train to Brussel-South and then change to a train towards Gent-Sint-Pieters, for the information about the train station, read the paragraph for Brussel-Zaventem.

Registration

You will have to register as a student at UGent at the University Forum (UFO) Building. A large glass building located at 25 Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat. You'll need to bring EVERYTHING you have with you, and they will likely also request things you don't have. A simple statement of "this is everything I have" is usually enough, and they will take a picture of you and hand you a student ID card. Keep this card safe as it is needed to be able to get cheap food at the student restaurants and also sometimes is asked for during examinations.

Finding the Fusion and Plasma Physics Department

Here is a little video on how to get to the Fusion and Plasma Physics department located at 25 Sint Pietersnieuwstraat.

Finding Your Classes

Your classes will take place in one of a few areas.

• The Plasma Physics / Fusion Department (see above)
• The Plateau/Rozier Building
• Technologieoark-Zwijnaarde (which is very far away from everything)
• De Sterre
• Zuiderpoort

Getting Around

Gent is a biking city, and obtaining a bike is very important. The main long-term bike rental agency is StudentENmobiliteit, and they will run out of bikes to rent a few days before the first semester starts. If you cannot rent a bike from them, you can always buy a bike from other Erasmus students selling them on Facebook or a website such as Kapaza.

If you cannot ride a bike, or do not want to ride a bike, the city is small enough to walk most places given half an hour to an hour for certain walks.

An extensive tram and bus system can take you almost anywhere in the extended city. To look up the train schedule go to NBMS or www.belgianrail.be and to look up the bus schedule go to www.delijn.be. A single ticket costs € 2.00 if bought in the bus/tram or € 1.20 if bought from ticket machines near stops, such ticket is valid for an hour's travel on all trams and buses. You can also buy a pass for € 10.00, it is valid for 10 trips within the city and can also be used in other Flemish cities where De Lijn is the public transportation operator (such as Antwerp or Bruges). This pass can be bought at the fancier kiosks at the train station near the buses, or at various special man-operated kiosks in central terminals in the city. There are also cheaper week and month long "Buzzy" passes if you plan to regularly use the Tram and Bus, which is €23.6 for the Month pass, €67 for three months, and €183 for a year if you are under the age of 24. For people older, you can get an Omnipass for about slightly more. For those considering riding without paying for a ticket, tickets are checked by fare enforcers on rare occasions; travelers without tickets may be fined €75 for a first time offense and up to €400 for a third or more time offense within 12 months. You can check out prices at Buzzy Pass and Omnipas

For getting around Belgium in general, those under the age of 26 should purchase a Go-Pass for €51 at the train station. You can have 10 trips for a single Go-Pass from anywhere to anywhere in Belgium as long as you fill out that days trip before you step onto the train (there is a small margin, but do not forget to fill it before leaving the station). This makes any one-way ticket just €5.00 unless you are headed to or from the airport in which case you must pay an additional "Diabolo" fee. You can figure out times for the trains by checking Belgian Rail. If you are over the age of 26, a similar system exists called a Rail-Pass that will run you around €75.

Student Restaurants

The university of Ghent offers several student restaurants where decent food can be bought at fair prices. There are three main restaurants, two of which are located near the city center: "De brug", which is right next to the UFO building in which you did your registration and thus very close to the "Plateau" & "Technicum" buildings where most of your classes will be held. The second one is the "Kantienberg" which is housed in the basement of the normal erasmus students housing building and the third one is "Home Astrid" which is located near the "De Sterre" campus. Meals are about € 3.2 - 4.5 for a plate with meat (fish or vegetarian) + vegetables + puree/fries/croquettes. Dishes vary from day to day (3 different choices a day) with possibility to get spaghetti or meatballs in tomato saus every day. Rush hour is around 13h00 so try to get there either before this time of at 13h30 to avoid having to wait in line.

In all restaurants there is also the ability to get a simple sandwich which is around € 2 depending on your choice of spread. In the "Zwijnaarde" campus there is no real student restaurant but only a cafeteria selling sandwiches.

Overview of the menu from week to week can be found on this link RestoMenu or by downloading the "Resto Menu" app from the app store (google play store).

Accommodation

Student Housing

Students staying for a full year will generally be put in Home Boudewijn located at Harelbekestraat 70, 9000 Gent. This is fairly far out of the city center, as well as most of your courses. However the building is filled with other Erasmus students and Belgian students particularly those majoring in medicine as the building is right next to the hospital. So the social aspect of the building is a major plus. The bathroom and showers are communal, and the internet has transfer limitations that can easily be reached by heavy downloaders or uploaders.

Students in their second year who are only staying for half a year, or students who are very late to apply for housing are likely to be put in the housing at Elfjulistraat. These have their own showers and bathrooms and no limitations to the internet. They also cost about 100 Euro more.

If you want to use any of the student housing options, register as soon as you can (this should become available on Oasis [uGent's student administration site] as early as March), and make sure you (are able to) select that you are arriving in the first week of September (if this is not possible email them). Otherwise you will be functionally homeless for the first week and a half of class!

Housing Office

The Housing Office will probably be one of the first places you go after getting off the train at Gent-Sint-Pieters. It is located at Stalhof 6. It is quite a walk from the station if you're carrying bags so a cab is recommended. Alternatively, you can take a bus at the train station to "Gent Heuvelpoort" which is 300m from the housing office. To know which bus to take look it up at www.delijn.be.

General opening hours are Monday to Friday: 8 a.m. till 12 noon & 1 p.m till 4.30 p.m.

Reception-desk hours are Monday to Friday: 8 a.m till 12 noon & 1 p.m. till 8 p.m.

• Phone: +32 (0)9 264 71 00
• Email: huisvesting@UGent.be

You are only allowed to move in on the day you registered for housing. So make sure your move-in date says September 1st or earlier. If not, contact the housing office asap. If you show up to the housing office before your move-in date, they will not allow you to move in earlier.

Internet

After registering as a student and creating a university user name and password, you can access the available internet. Information and installation procedures can be found at the Ugent Helpdesk. Note: you can access the Ugent help desk website without a vpn (see below). So you can access the site when you first move into your dorm.

If you are in a campus building you should have wifi access to Eduroam. The user name is yourusername@ugent.be (the @ugent.be is important) and the password is your university password.

If you are in a campus dormitory, you only have access to the internet via Ethernet cable (so bring one with you when you move in!) Most dorms do not have any wifi access although Boudewijn does have wifi on the ground floor. To access the internet you must set up a vpn connection by installing a vpn client. By having a vpn connection the university can monitor all of your internet usage. As a result, they limit your internet usage to 25GB of download and 5GB of upload. You can monitor your usage with the vpn meter If you are a normal human, you will have no problem exceeding this. If you exceed this, your internet will be slowed down and you will be unable to log into the Eduroam wifi. This is extremely annoying so be mindful of your usage. If you do go over your usage (and all of you will at some point), there is hope. Without logging into your vpn, you can access the internet by logging into Athena (see the 'Courses at Ugent' section).

Living in Boudewijn

You will most likely be placed in Boudewijn. It is located almost equidistant between the train station, the main campus buildings, and the technology park.

There is a cheap student bar on the ground floor which is open on Tuesdays and is run by the Home Boudewijn Student club. Every week has a theme or game to keep life interesting. Also, about once of twice a semester, the student club organizes a big party or dance in the bar. These are generally very lively. Additionally during second semester, the bar will have a regional beers week. It will be open all week and contain all of the speciality beers of Belgium including Westvletern which is considered by many to be the best beer in the world. Don't publicize this too much as they are technically selling it on the black market.

Most students living in Boudewijn get there groceries from Aldi (right next door) or at Proxy (a short bike ride away). Aldi, by far, has the cheapest groceries while Proxy has better quality and selection.

Next to the laundry mat, there is a general office supply store called Strobbe. Being a student gets you a 10% discount on anything in the store. Furthermore, they have the lowest printing rates in the city. The two women who work there are very friendly and helpful.

Private Market

Depending on the effort you are willing to put in, you can either stay in private housing meant for students, or rent a real studio and set up your own internet and buy your own furniture. This might be worth it for a second year student staying there for a year. Depending on location and quality of the housing, prices range between € 280 - 700.

(Sadly since Juli 2014, "Home sharing" in which several students group together to live in a house instead of getting separate student rooms is no longer allowed in order to give more chance to young families to live in Ghent. This rule strictly implies that atleast one of the residents must have his domicile ( official address of living ie. address used on all official documents ) at this location thus house sharing might still be possible in some cases since non-European students are supposed to take domicile on their address in Europe in order to get your residency card. More investigation into this possibility will be necessary though.)

Some websites to help you with your search:
Kapaza - Also is useful for finding things like bikes, monitors, or other knick knacks you want to buy.

Hostels

Arguably, the two best hostels in the city are Backstay and Uppelink. Backstay is located across the street from the UFO building and is a short walk from the city center. Upplink is in the heart of the city center and a short walk from the university. Expect 18-28 euros a night (this is standard for Gent). Neither are close to the train station. Take a cab.

Furnishing the place

If you indeed decide to take a place of the private market, or just looking for some piece of furniture to fancy up your place, there are several possibilities:

1. Buy new stuff online on: Bol , Ebay.

2. Get second hand stuff either online on Kapaza or in several secondhand stores in Ghent: Kringloopwinkel, 2ehandsshop, depot09, ecoshop.

3. Go to ikea IKEAgent.