Master of Science in Bioinformatics
On this page

Admission requirements

Admission requirements

The admission requirements depend on previous degrees (type of degree, country of issue, etc.) or additional experience.
For more info on the admission requirements for the different tracks, please see:

To be admitted to the Systems Biology track, your pre-education should consist of minimally 10 ECTS of mathematical courses, because no English-taught alternatives are available at UGent for your reorientation.

Language requirements

Language requirements can be found here.

The teaching language is English, so for foreign students, an English certificate (CEF B2-level or higher) is required and cannot be older than four academic years, counting from the academic year after the proof of language was acquired:

  • a TOEFL TEST, with a score of at least 510 (paper-based), or of at least 72 (Internet-based).

    Participants are to specify “institution code” 2643 if they want the test results to be communicated directly to Ghent University.

  • an original ‘Academic Test Report Form’ (TRF) from IELTS, with an overall score of at least 6.0

  • an Interuniversity Test of Academic English (ITACE) awarded by the Ghent University Language Centre (Universitair Centrum voor Talenonderwijs, UCT), Linguapolis (University of Antwerp), the Leuven Language Institute (Instituut voor Levende Talen, ILT), or the Academic Language Centre (ACTo -VUB); see here.

    • ...

    This certificate can be provided later during the application process, but as long as you do not have it, you cannot finally register for the master.

    General Graduate Record Examination (GRE) test

    For non-EER students, a score report of their General Graduate Record Examination (GRE) test is also required. Our limits are 152 on verbal reasoning and 162 on quantitative reasoning.

    Application instructions and deadlines

    You can find all information here.

    Foreign students need to apply online in time before the deadline:

    • 1st of April for students who need a Visa
    • 1st of June for students who do not need a Visa

    Belgian students also need to apply online before the end of August.

    Information

    The relevance of bioinformatics and computational biology (slides 1-11) and the Master program (slides 12 etc) are presented here. If you hoover over the speaker icon at the right bottom, you can click on the play button and listen to the explanations for every slide.

    Master grant

    The Master Mind scholarship of Flanders Knowledge Area is for academically outstanding students with a GPA of 3.5 out of 4.0 and a minimum score of 94 on the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) or an overall band score of minimum 7.0 on the IELTS (International English Language Testing System). A proof of the GPA and TOEFL/IELTS are both required. You can calculate your average GPA here.

    Please be aware that we can only suggest 2 candidates for the MSc in Bioinformatics and that UGent can only suggest 20 candidates of all UGent educations to the government of Flanders, so the chance of getting this scholarship is small.

    If you are interested, please send an email to Prof. Kathleen Marchal (kathleen.marchal@ugent.be) before the deadline (1/04) with a short motivation (at least three reasons, at least 150 words) why we should suggest you. Also add your prospect application file and the required proofs (GPA and TOEFL/IELTS), so we can suggest your application.

    Also be aware that this is not a full scholarship. You must still be able to provide for your own financing in order to be able to make the most of your studies.

    Practical

    Welcome at UGent

    Please check the guide for new students.

    Costs

    The exact tuition fee can be found here.

    Housing

    Regarding the housing, you can find details here.

    VISA

    All information about obtaining a Visa for Belgium is available here.

    As a rule, students must apply for this Visa at the Belgian Consulate or Embassy in their own country or in the country where they legally reside, and not at the public authorities in Belgium itself. If there is no Belgian Consulate or Embassy in their home country, they may submit their application at the Belgian Consulate or Embassy in one of the neighboring countries.

    ATTENTION: Students should not enter Belgium with a tourist Visa if they intend to stay longer than 90 days.

    Contact

    If you have any questions, send a mail to Prof. Kathleen Marchal (kathleen.marchal@ugent.be).