Established in 1817 by
King William I of the
Netherlands,
Ghent University (, abbreviated as
UGent) is a
public research
university located in
Ghent, Belgium. After the
Belgian revolution of 1830, the newly-formed
Belgian state began to administer the university. In 1930, it became the first
Dutch-speaking university in Belgium—
French having been the academic language up to that point. In 1991, the university was granted major autonomy and changed its name from
State University of Ghent (, abbreviated as
RUG) to its current designation. It is one of the larger
Flemish universities, consisting of 41,000 students and 9,000 staff members. The current
rector is .