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Ghent University (Dutch: Universiteit Gent, abbreviated as UGent) is a public research university located in Ghent, Belgium. Established before the state of Belgium itself, the university was founded by the Dutch King William I in 1817, when the region was incorporated into the United Kingdom of the Netherlands after the fall of First French Empire. In that same year, he founded two other universities for the southern provinces as well, alongside Ghent University: University of Liège and State University of Leuven. After the Belgian revolution of 1830, the newly formed Belgian state began to administer Ghent University. In 1930, UGent became the first Dutch-speaking university in Belgium. Previously, French (and, even earlier, Latin) had been the standard academic language in what was Université de Gand. In 1991, it was granted major autonomy and changed its name accordingly from State University of Ghent (Dutch: Rijksuniversiteit Gent, abbreviated as RUG) to its current designation. Located in Flanders, Ghent is one of the largest Belgian universities, consisting of 44,000 students and 9,000 staff members. The university also supports the Ghent University Library (including the famous Boekentoren) and the Ghent University Hospital, which is one of the biggest hospitals in Belgium. In addition to satellite campuses elsewhere in Flanders and a Global Campus in Songdo, South Korea, Ghent University maintains many inter-university partnerships and programs both inside and outside of Europe. An avowedly research-driven and socially minded university, UGent consistently rates among the top 100 universities in the world. It is one of the greatest beneficiaries of funding from the Flemish research council. It was also among the Top 30 recipients of major research grants awarded by the European Research Council under the funding framework Horizon 2020 (2014–2020).

Sint-Barbaracollege in Ghent, Belgium, is a private Jesuit school, founded in 1833. It currently includes primary and secondary education.

The Boekentoren (Dutch for Book Tower) is a famous building located in Ghent, Belgium, designed by the Belgian architect Henry van de Velde. It is part of the Ghent University Library and currently houses 3 million books. The Boekentoren is directly adjacent to the Blandijn, the buildings of the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy.

Ghent University Library (Dutch: Universiteitsbibliotheek Gent) is located in the city of Ghent, Belgium. It serves the university community of students and scholarly researchers.

Vlerick Business School ("Vlerick") is a Belgian business school with campuses in Ghent, Leuven and Brussels. It is a result of a merger of the MBA programmes of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and of the Instituut Professor Vlerick voor Management of Ghent University, in 1999. It is a higher education institute recognized and subsidized by decree.

The Blandijn, short for Blandijnberg, is a building complex of Ghent University in the Belgian city Ghent and directly adjacent to Boekentoren, the tower of the Ghent University Library. The Blandijn, named after the Blandijnberg hill it stands on, houses the Faculty of Arts & Philosophy. The first part of the Blandijn buildings was officially opened in 1960. The Blandijn complex is located centrally in Ghent's student neighborhood. There are several other university buildings within walking distance of the Blandijn. In the 1960s to 1980s, there were several student demonstrations at the site of the Blandijn. The severest demonstrations took place in 1969 in the wake of May 1968. Currently, the university is working on the renovation of libraries both in the Blandijn and in the Boekentoren. All seminary libraries within the Faculty of Arts & Philosophy are being centralized in the Rozier-building, whereas the Boekentoren is facing a make-over. All documents in the tower will temporarily be relocated to an underground library under the court between the Boekentoren and the Blandijn, the construction of which was finished in 2013.

The Koning Albertpark, also known as Zuidpark, is a city park in the Belgian city of Ghent. The park is located in the southeast of the city center, between Woodrow Wilson Square and the B401 motorway exits that terminate at Zuidpark in the city. It is a neo-baroque park, where the other parks in the city are mostly laid out in English landscape style.After the demolition of the Gent-Zuid train station in 1928, which was replaced by the Gent-Sint-Pieters railway station, a large elongated space became available. In the 1930s, the Zuidpark was built on these former railway sites. After the death of King Albert I in 1934, it was officially called King Albert Park.A bust of Leopold II of Belgium stood in the park for many years. It was removed in 2020, as a result of the George Floyd protests in Belgium.

The Blandijnberg is a 29m high hill in the city center of Ghent in East Flanders, Belgium.

The Diocese of Ghent (Latin: Dioecesis Gandavensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Belgium. It is a suffragan in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels. The patron of the diocese is Saint Bavo of Ghent.

Saint Bavo's Cathedral, also known as Sint-Baafs Cathedral (Dutch: Sint Baafskathedraal), is a cathedral of the Catholic Church in Ghent, Belgium. The 89-meter-tall Gothic building is the seat of the Diocese of Ghent and is named for Saint Bavo of Ghent. It contains the well-known Ghent Altarpiece.

The Sint-Pietersplein (Dutch pronunciation: [ˌsɪnt ˈpiːtərsplɛi̯n]; "St. Peter's Square") is a city square located in the south of the historic centre of Ghent, East Flanders, Belgium. The square is named after St. Peter's Abbey, which is located along its east side. It is Ghent's largest public square and a regular venue for cultural and sporting events, such as the annual Mid-Lent Fair in March. The square and its surrounding buildings are a protected cityscape.

Saint Peter's Abbey (Dutch: Sint-Pietersabdij) is a former Benedictine abbey in Ghent, Belgium, now a museum and exhibition centre. Saint Peter's was founded in the late 7th century by Amandus, a missionary sent by the Frankish kings to Christianize the pagan inhabitants of the region, who founded two monasteries in the area, St. Bavo's, and Saint Peter's on the Blandijnberg. During the winter of 879-80, the abbey was raided and plundered by the Normans, and it remained relatively poor until the 10th century, when donations of property and relics by Count Arnulf I considerably enriched it, as did further donations by Arnulf's cousin King Edgar of England. By the second half of the century it was the wealthiest abbey in Flanders, and the reputation of the abbey school extended far beyond the town. In 984, Gerbert of Aurillac, director of the cathedral school of Reims, (later Pope Sylvester II) inquired whether students from Reims could be admitted to Saint Peter's, and its renown as a centre of artes liberales continued into the 11th century. Saint Peter's, through its ownership of large tracts of land, also played a pioneering role in cultivation during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, transforming forests, moors and marshes into farmland. In the fifteenth century a large scale programme of construction created the abbey library and scriptorium, enlarged the refectory, and the abbey church and other buildings were considerably beautified.Saint Peter's first decline began following the Revolt of Ghent in 1539, and by the 1560s the Low Countries were plunged in a religious crisis that resulted in an attack by iconoclasts in 1566 in which the abbey church was wrecked, the library looted, and other buildings badly damaged. The infirmary was pressed into service as a temporary home for the monks and the refectory used as a place of worship. However opposition continued and in 1578 the abbot and monks were forced to flee to Douai. The abbey buildings were sold at public auction and were partly demolished, the materials being used to construct the city walls. The abbey finally came back into the hands of the church in 1584, and it was eventually rebuilt, with a new abbey church, begun in 1629, in the Baroque style, as well as several other new builds and refurbishments. During the 18th century, the abbey was once again flourishing, as new buildings were constructed and older ones enlarged, including the conversion of the old dormitory into a library with more than ten thousand books. However, the end was not far off, first with the Brabant Revolution of 1789–90, then the French invasion of 1793. Finally, on 1 September 1796, the Directory abolished all religious institutions. In 1798 the library was emptied and eventually taken to the University of Ghent. From 1798 the abbey church was used as a museum, but was returned to the ownership of the church in 1801 and renamed Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-Sint-Pieterskerk ("Our Lady of Saint Peter's Church"). In 1810, the rest of the abbey became the property of the city of Ghent, and was partially demolished for the construction of a military barracks, which remained on the site until 1948.Around 1950 the city launched a programme of restoration, which is still ongoing, which began with the cloister and chapter house, then the west wing, including the old refectory and kitchens. Work on the wine cellars and attics was completed in the 1970s, and in 1982 work on the abbey gardens was completed, and in 1986 the terrace. In the 1990s restoration of the refectory wing began.The abbey is now used as a museum and exhibition centre, which in 2000 housed a major exhibition as part of the Year of Emperor Charles, and in October 2001 hosted the 88th meeting of the European Council.