Other directors have included well-known Belgian composers such as Adolphe Samuel and Émile Mathieu.

The school also offers post-graduate degrees in music as well as a European Postgraduate in Arts in Sound.

The school traditionally attaches great importance to the practice of chamber music.

In 1995, the Royal Conservatory was one of sixteen Belgian institutions merged into the University College Ghent.

Notable students and faculty at the conservatory have included François-Auguste Gevaert, who studied directly under Mengal in 1841, Paul-Henri-Joseph Lebrun, who studied here and became a professor, and Edouard Potjes, who served as professor of piano for 22 years.