UGent has a license agreement for ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Pro.
Since May 1, 2025, ArcGIS applications are only available with an ArcGIS Online account. After requesting and approving your account, you can use ArcGIS Online and download and install ArcGIS Pro on your own device.
You can install ArcGIS Pro in two ways:
The university has a license agreement with Autodesk for educational versions of AutoCAD, Civil 3D and Revit. These licenses may only be used for educational purposes and therefore not within the administrations of the university or for commercial research (services to external companies, ...).
Students and teachers must first create an educational account with Autodesk (using your Ghent University email address) in order to download and install the software on their own devices.
Autodesk is also available on the PCs in the PC classrooms.
In 2025, we will be able to offer BioRender licenses at a temporary introductory price of €160 excluding VAT per employee. This price is only valid for the first 100 licenses ordered and during the first year.
In 2026, the cost price for subsequent orders and renewals is expected to be around €195 excluding VAT.
To simplify administration, we ask that orders be grouped by department or research group as much as possible.
You can order BioRender licenses via ICT HelpMe. Be sure to include the following information:
Can licenses be transferred?
No, the licenses are strictly personal. Only if an employee leaves Ghent University or indicates that they no longer need the license can this license be transferred to a colleague in exceptional circumstances. It is not permitted to frequently exchange licenses between employees or to share login details.
I have already purchased a (more expensive) individual license myself. Can I still take advantage of this central offer?
If you already have an individual or team license, you can purchase a new license through Ghent University and receive a pro-rata refund of the license fee for the remaining period of your license.
Where can I find a manual?
On Athena, anyone with a Ghent University account (both staff and students) has access to a wide range of applications. You can launch all these applications online, without having to install them on your professional or personal device first. Athena uses Citrix technology for this.
To use all the applications available on Athena, you first need to install the Citrix Workspace application on your device. Please do not fill in anything when you are asked to add an account. Just click on the cross on the right. Then go to https://athena.ugent.be to start an application from Athena.
With MOJO conference registration software, you can manage online registrations and payments for your event (conference, symposium, convention, etc.). Please visit Online registrations and payments for events.
Ghent University has a campus license for EndNote.
Employees with an Intune device can install EndNote via the Company Portal.
Employees and students can also install EndNote via Academic Software:
EndNote offers a wide range of Connections, Filters and Styles files. You can view the files via Edit > Output Styles > Open Style Manager...
To customize a style:
To use your own style file:
To return to the default Style files:
With this web application, you can create your own registration forms for events with simple registration options. Please visit Online registrations and payments for events.
Foxit PDF Editor is a fast and secure PDF editor that allows you to create, edit and secure PDF documents.
Foxit PDF Editor is available on Athena for all Ghent University staff and students.
You can also order a license for local installation via ICT HelpMe. These licenses cost €48.84 excluding VAT per employee per year. Be sure to include the following information in your application:
To simplify administration, we ask that orders be grouped by department or research group as much as possible.
Gismo is available for active Ghent University researchers. Please read the research tip GISMO: what is it? for more details.
The university has a campus license for GitHub. However, this agreement is limited to projects in research and education.
Ghent University has a campus license for IBM SPSS Statistics. This license may only be used for educational purposes and non commercial research.
You can install IBM SPSS Statistics in two ways:
To avoid corruption of data files, it is best to save your SPSS Statistics data files:
The SPSS Statistics manuals are available online.
A number of sample files are available in the folder \\install.ugent.be\software\SPSSStatistics\29\Samples (copy these files to your H: drive before opening them in SPSS Statistics).
The university has a campus license for LabVIEW Professional Development System and a large number of LabVIEW modules and toolkits (overview).
Employees and students can install LabVIEW via Academic Software:
Ghent University has a campus license for MAXQDA Analytics Pro.
Employees and students can install MAXQDA via Academic Software:
A new serial number is available (valid until 10/04/2026) via Academic Software. Please deactivate the old serial number first (select in the software the blue question mark > Deactivate License on this Computer) before activating the new serial number.
MS Project is available via the Academic Software software platform and may be used for educational purposes in accordance with the Azure Dev Tools for Teaching agreement.
MS Visio is available via the Academic Software software platform and may be used for educational purposes in accordance with the Azure Dev Tools for Teaching agreement.
Ghent university has a campus license for Maple.
You can install Maple in two ways:
sudo apt-get install ia32-libs
The university has 2 separate license agreements for Matlab:
Both licenses require a connection with a license server and therefore can only be used while connected with the university network either directly or via VPN or Eduroam.
Matlab research licenses can be used for research purposes. They cannot be used on computing clusters or for commercial research.
The number of available research licenses:
| 150 | Matlab |
| 12 | Simulink |
| 25 | Bioinformatics Toolbox |
| 25 | Communications System Toolbox |
| 10 | Control System Toolbox |
| 15 | Curve Fitting Toolbox |
| 25 | DSP System Toolbox |
| 25 | Data Acquisition Toolbox |
| 10 | Database Toolbox |
| 2 | Embedded Coder |
| 25 | Fuzzy Logic Toolbox |
| 10 | Global Optimization Toolbox |
| 25 | Image Acquisition Toolbox |
| 25 | Image Processing Toolbox |
| 7 | Instrument Control Toolbox |
| 5 | Mapping Toolbox |
| 12 | Matlab Coder |
| 5 | Matlab Compiler |
| 5 | Matlab Compiler SDK |
| 10 | Neural Network Toolbox |
| 25 | Optimization Toolbox |
| 20 | Parallel Computing Toolbox |
| 5 | Partial Differential Equation Toolbox |
| 2 | RF Toolbox |
| 25 | Signal Processing Toolbox |
| 2 | Simscape |
| 1 | Simscape Multibody (SimMechanics) |
| 2 | Simscape Electrical (SimPowerSystems) |
| 12 | Simulink Coder |
| 50 | Statistics Toolbox |
| 11 | Symbolic Math Toolbox |
| 25 | Wavelet Toolbox |
MathWorks has discontinued the "Classroom" licence model. We can continue to use the classroom licences, but we can no longer update them to the latest version. Matlab 2024a is therefore the most recent version we can offer on Athena and in the PC classrooms.
Matlab classroom licenses can only be used for educational purposes and not for research or on computing clusters. The Matlab version on Athena and in computer rooms uses these licenses.
The number of available classroom licenses:
| 500 | Matlab |
| 250 | Simulink |
| 10 | Bioinformatics Toolbox |
| 56 | Communications System Toolbox |
| 250 | Control System Toolbox |
| 60 | Curve Fitting Toolbox |
| 56 | DSP System Toolbox |
| 20 | Data Acquisition Toolbox |
| 50 | Database Toolbox |
| 25 | Econometrics Toolbox |
| 25 | Financial Instruments Toolbox |
| 25 | Financial Toolbox |
| 250 | Fuzzy Logic Toolbox |
| 25 | Global Optimization Toolbox |
| 10 | Image Acquisition Toolbox |
| 250 | Image Processing Toolbox |
| 10 | Matlab Coder |
| 10 | Matlab Compiler |
| 250 | Model Predictive Control Toolbox |
| 250 | Neural Network Toolbox |
| 250 | Optimization Toolbox |
| 25 | Parallel Computing Toolbox |
| 250 | Partial Differential Equation Toolbox |
| 250 | Robust Control Toolbox |
| 250 | Signal Processing Toolbox |
| 35 | SimPowerSystems |
| 35 | Simscape |
| 10 | Simulink Coder |
| 250 | Simulink Control Design |
| 250 | Simulink Design Optimization |
| 200 | Statistics Toolbox |
| 235 | Symbolic Math Toolbox |
| 250 | System Identification Toolbox |
| 250 | Wavelet Toolbox |
Students can access Matlab on Athena and on the computers in some computer rooms. The university licenses do not allow installing Matlab on devices that are owned by students. Students who wish to install Matlab on their device can purchase a student license.
Matlab can be installed on devices that are owned by the university, either:
It's possible to download the installation files from Mathworks, or copy the installation files from the software share.
SERVER licmatlabresearch.ugent.be 000000000000 27002 USE_SERVER
There is no need to register on the Mathworks website if you install Matlab from the software share.
As the university only has a limited number of research licenses, it is not allowed to use these directly on the High Performance Cluster (HPC) or other computing clusters. It is possible to use the MATLAB Compiler to compile a standalone executable and to run this executable on a computing cluster. Executing compiled Matlab programs doesn't consume any licenses on the license server.
Matlab programs can be compiled on Unix systems in the following way, for example:
$ mcc -m -R -nojvm -R -nodisplay myscript.m -o myscript
The compiled program can then be executed using the following command:
$ ./run_myscript.sh $EBROOTMATLAB
The $EBROOTMATLAB variable indicates the location where Matlab is installed, e.g. /usr/local/MATLAB/R2020b, but you can also simply specify the path to the Matlab installation folder instead of this variable.
On Windows systems, Matlab programs can be compiled as follows:
$ mcc -m -R -nojvm -R -nodisplay myscript.m -o myscript
The compiled program can then be executed using the following command:
$ run_myscript.bat "C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2020b"
mbuild -setup
Use the command "ver" to check which toolboxes are installed.
Ghent University has an Azure Dev Tools for Teaching agreement with Microsoft. The Azure Dev Tools for Teaching programme is intended for educational purposes only. Use for other purposes, such as research or administration, is not permitted. For non-educational use of these applications, a licence must be purchased via the Select Plus Agreement.
This agreement allows students to use a number of Microsoft applications for educational purposes free of charge. Students can use this agreement to install Windows on a virtual machine, for example in Parallels Desktop on a Mac or in VirtualBox on Linux.
This agreement allows also teachers to install and use these programs when teaching about the relevant applications.
Subjects covered by this agreement include:
Students can use their Ghent University account to sign up for a free subscription to Microsoft Azure for Students. This subscription is valid for 12 months and you get a credit of 100 USD to spend on, among other things, Windows Server, R-client, R-server, Visual Studio, ...
The Microsoft Campus Agreement covers the most commonly used Microsoft applications and grants the right to install them freely on UGent devices.
Applications covered by this agreement include:
(*) The Windows Desktop licence is an upgrade licence. This means that it may only be used to upgrade PCs or laptops with an existing legal Windows licence to a version included in the Campus Agreement. Most devices purchased, for example through Dell, already have an OEM licence for Microsoft Windows and can therefore be upgraded to Windows 11 Enterprise.
For Microsoft products that are not covered by the Campus Agreement, Ghent University offers the Select Plus Agreement.
A separate license must be purchased for each installation. However, the prices are considerably lower than the commercial rates:
The above prices are per employee and per year (Visio, Project, Visual Studio) or per installation (Windows Server) - at the time of writing in January 2025.
A license with Software Assurance entitles you to all product upgrades released within the Software Assurance period (in principle 3 years). You can purchase a license for the most recent version of a program, but you can also install an older version.
To simplify administration, we ask that orders be grouped by department or research group as much as possible.
You can order licenses via ICT HelpMe. Be sure to include the following information:
The Oracle software may be:
Download the software at https://www.oracle.com/downloads/index.html
Please consult the research tip Qualtrics: how do I use this survey tool? for all details.
Ghent University has a campus license for a number of Siemens applications, including Siemens NX. This license permits the use of the application for educational purposes and non-commercial research. Use for commercial purposes is not permitted.
Employees with an Intune device can install Siemens NX via the Company Portal.
Employees and students can also install Siemens NX via Academic Software:
This e-learning platform offers a wealth of course material for the various Siemens applications.
Anyone with a Ghent University account can apply for an Enterprise Academic Gold Membership for this platform:
SigmaPlot is available on Athena for all staff members and students at Ghent University.
The manuals can be found at https://grafiti.com/support/.
The Academic Software platform is available to all students and staff at Ghent University, but not to Ghent University retirees or UZ staff.
An overview of the software available for your Ghent University profile can be found on the website of Academic Software (under “Software”).
The Athena software platform gives everyone with a Ghent University account (both staff and students) access to a wide range of applications. You can launch all these applications online, without having to install them on your professional or personal device first.
The Company Portal software platform is available to all Ghent University employees with a professional Windows device from Ghent University. This is one of the applications that Intune installs in the background on your professional Windows device.
The Microsoft 365 software platform (or “M365 Copilot”) is available to all students and staff at Ghent University.
Go to https://m365.cloud.microsoft/apps/ for an overview of the software available on this software platform.
As an employee, you can reserve UGent infrastructure for your academic and non-academic activities. You can always reserve a room via TimeEdit.
With UServe, you can easily submit structured and bundled work, repair and service requests for our buildings and facility services. See UServe: requests for repairs, works and other services for more details.