2022

National plan for accommodation in higher education

To provide an integrated and long-term response to the need for affordable accommodation for higher education students throughout the country, the Government has created a student accommodation investment programme, as part of the Recovery and Resilience Plan, funding the National Plan for Accommodation in Higher Education (PNAES). The Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education and the National Agency for ERASMUS + Education and Training, within their remit, called for "expressions of interest" from developers to submit proposals for higher education student residence projects by the end of February 2022.

COVID-19 - Resumption of classroom teaching and non-teaching activities 

The Council of Ministers (January 2022) approved the amendment of measures regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, to adapt them to the current situation, as well as the considered reduction of restrictions set during the recent festive period. As stipulated in Decree-Law No 104/2021, 27 November, as of 10 January 2022, suspension of face-to-face teaching and non-teaching activities of HEIs ended, which should make institutions fully functional, without prejudice to the compulsory teleworking regime in the situations foreseen in the law. It was also recommended that scientific and higher education institutions ensure face-to-face activities in compliance with health authorities’ recommendations and technical standards in force, regarding health and hygiene, guaranteeing physical distance and use of individual protection equipment (e.g., masks for general use), in all areas of the institutions.

Public investment programme in research and development for 2021-2030

Council of Ministers Resolution No 186/2021 was approved on 21 December 2021, approving the public investment programme in research and development for 2021-2030. This resolution enshrines European terms of reference, while reforming and modernising mechanisms that support knowledge supply and demand through R&D activities. It includes support for innovation and promotion of scientific culture, strengthening and modernising national scientific and technological capacity, accelerating the dual digital and climate transition. Interface relations between knowledge supply and demand thus evolves, reconfiguring the knowledge-based economy and the creation of skilled jobs, as well as scientific, social and environmental robustness.

Vocational students in higher education

In the 2021/22 academic year, there were 2,524 new vacancies in 493 undergraduate and integrated master's degrees for students who have completed upper secondary education, through vocational pathways and specialised artistic courses.  

2021

Scholarship awards for higher education students

Some regulatory changes have been made to the scholarship awards for higher education students for the 2020/21 academic year. This was done to broaden the social support base and streamline the attribution process, as well as adapt its application to the pandemic of the previous academic year. Important measures include:

• Setting a minimum scholarship of 125 % of the tuition fee.
• Increasing the scholarship eligibility threshold from 16 to 18 times the Social Support Index.
• Automatic attribution to 1st-year students, first time beneficiaries of level one family allowance.
• Automatic attribution to scholarship students who finish a course and continue their studies ("between cycles").
• Increasing the non-residence housing complement, with higher sums for regions where the cost of renting is greater.
• Possibility of recalculating the scholarship considering 2020’s income (or the last 12 months), to support students with a reduction in income due to COVID-19.

Vocational students in higher education  

For the 2020/21 academic year, there were 2,615 new places (covering 456 first-cycle degrees) for students who have completed upper secondary education via vocational pathways and specialised arts courses.

This new access route aims to improve the Portuguese population’s qualifications and skills, broadening the social base of higher education access for students who do not come from science-humanities upper secondary courses. Although 45 % of upper secondary school students attend vocationally oriented courses, their representation in higher education is poor. By 2023, the aim is for 40% of students on vocational pathways to enter higher education (around 10,000 enrolments).

Another objective is to increase adult participation in higher education so that by 2023, adults will account for about 10 % of new students on 1st-cycle degree courses offered by polytechnics and universities.

Recommendation to higher education institutions for the 2020/21 academic year

The negative development of Portugal’s epidemiological situation in early 2021 and the government’s decision to suspend teaching and non-teaching classroom activities on 21 January 2021, forced scientific and higher education institutions to temporarily adapt their activities to the new situation and the extraordinary state of emergency. To this end, on the same day, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education issued a recommendation to higher education institutions, as part of their management, pedagogical and scientific autonomy, to:

• adapt ongoing activities (teaching, non-teaching and research) to the non-face-to-face regime, including student assessment.
• adapt procedures to mitigate the risk of contagion by COVID-19 in situations where face-to-face assessment activities are considered essential and cannot be postponed.
• ensure that telework is compulsory whenever compatible with staff duties.
• identify the essential services that must be provided face-to-face.

Recognition of degrees and diplomas issued by foreign HEIs

Recognition in Portugal of higher education academic degrees and diplomas awarded by foreign higher education institutions has been regulated since 1 January 2019 by Decree-Law No 66/2018, which revokes Decree-Law No 283/83 and Decree-Law No 341/2007.

The new decree-law standardises procedures for foreign qualification recognition, making them more transparent, equitable and straightforward, amending previous regimes to better clarify concepts and extend recognition of foreign qualifications to higher education diplomas that do not confer an academic degree, with level, objectives and character identical to higher technical vocational courses. The legislation simplifies procedures, establishing a precedence system for level recognition, which provides a more automatic process regarding decisions, avoiding repetition, reducing costs and response times.

2020

Recommendation to higher education institutions for academic year 2020/2021

Following the decisions of the Council of Ministers published on 16 July, 2020, including new measures mitigating the pandemic associated with COVID-19, and the Directorate General of Health’s guidelines on teaching and non-teaching activities in the 2020/2021 academic year, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education issued a recommendation to scientific and higher education institutions on 4 August.

This recommendation defines 3 guiding principles for the 2020/2021 academic year: 1. A guarantee of face-to-face activities; 2. The adoption of realistic procedures; and 3. Encouragement of innovation and pedagogical modernisation.

In operational terms, higher education institutions are recommended to:

1. Plan teaching and non-teaching activities, as well as assessment, on a face-to-face basis.
2. Guarantee the presence of teachers at institutions.
3. Pay special attention to common areas.
4. Adjust the duration of each class and student evaluation.
5. Encourage experimentation and dissemination of innovative teaching and learning practices.
6. Whenever possible, ensure planning of free space.
7. Encourage coordination between courses and departments for the purpose of splitting timetables and the expansion of support structures.
8. Continue to provide and encourage clinical teaching and clinical internships.
9. Organise viral testing campaigns, as well as immunological studies based on periodic and continuous serological screenings over time.
10. Publicise and encourage the use of the STAYAWAY COVID digital system by the academic community.

When developing students' skills, higher education institutions should consider the different age strata:

• the youngest (18-23 years old), where it is important to continue the increased social reach of higher education, which this year includes the opening of special applications for vocational areas, and the fight against school dropout and failure.
• younger adults (23-35 years old), who may have greater difficulty entering or re-entering the job market in the current social and economic climate.
• the population between 35-55 years old with reasons to invest in upgrading their skills or rejigging their career.

Some of the recommendations include the following:

• Developing strategies to guarantee provision of adult education and lifelong learning processes, while ensuring that the proportion of 20-year-olds studying in higher education increases from the current 50% to 60% by 2030.
• Providing up-skilling and re-skilling activities, considering that recent events have encouraged new teaching/learning practices and approaches.

+Superior (+Higher) programme 2020/2021

The "+Superior Programme for the 2020/2021 academic year" will have 2,230 new scholarships, which is an 18 % increase compared with the 2019/20 academic year. The value of each individual scholarship from the +Superior Programme is 1,700 euros (amount allocated annually).

Vocational students in higher education (continued)

In the 2020/2021 academic year, there will be 2,370 new places via vocational training and specialised artistic courses in 456 undergraduate degrees for students who have completed upper-secondary education.

This new route aims to boost the Portuguese population’s level of qualifications and skills, broadening the social base of access to higher education to students who did not study science-humanities upper-secondary courses. Despite 45 % of upper-secondary school students attending vocational courses, few attend higher education. The aim is for about 40 % of students on vocational courses to continue their studies in higher education by 2023, which represents about 10,000 enrolments.

Another goal is to increase the numbers of adults in higher education so that by 2023 they will represent around 10 % of new students studying degrees offered by polytechnics and universities.

Mobilisation of scientific and higher education institutions to combat COVID-19

The Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education (MCTES) has encouraged scientific and higher education institutions to mobilise and become involved with various initiatives supporting the NHS and social support infrastructures, including:

1. The design and implementation of viral diagnostic tests, with a testing protocol by the Instituto de Medicina Molecular (IMM) that facilitates the use of Portuguese reagents.
2. The design and implementation of serological tests, to facilitate immunity studies.
3. The design of new diagnostic means and mechanisms, including the unprecedented domestic manufacture of swabs through a national consortium and cooperation between science/industry (Centro Académico Clinico - ABC, IST, Hidrofer, Logoplaste, FLAD);
4. The design and production of medical equipment and devices, especially invasive ventilators (CEIIA) and emergency ventilators based on AMBU pump automation (INESC TEC, Politécnicos de Viseu, Leiria, Viana);
5. The production of personal protection equipment, including visors and masks, as well as disinfectant gel (Hovione);
6. The donation of various types of equipment and support utensils to hospitals and health care units.

The Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education (MCTES) has provided support and funding programmes, including:

1. DOCTORATES 4 COVID-19: an initiative launched by FCT (Science and Technology Foundation) to stimulate PhD training of researchers and specialists in "virology sciences" in Portugal, initially funding 50 doctorate scholarships worth €3.5 M. FCT will also support the organisation, by national institutions and in coordination with the Agency for Clinical Research and Biomedical Innovation (Agência de Investigação Clínica e Inovação Biomédica - AICIB), of a yearly, week-long "Doctoral School in Virology Sciences", in the form of a workshop that brings together Portuguese and international students and researchers;

2. AI 4 COVID-19: Data Science and Artificial Intelligence in Public Administration - an initiative launched by the FCT to fund data processing-oriented R&D projects during the current pandemic of the new coronavirus SARS CoV2 and COVID-19 disease, thus improving the response of public administration bodies to the impact of COVID-19 and future pandemics, in line with the National Preparation and Response to the Disease Plan (COVID-19) of the Directorate-General for Health (DGS). This process will also benefit from the recent availability of pandemic data provided by the DGS. The budget allocation is €3 M.

3. Science4COVID19: portal that brings together ideas, publications, and ongoing activities, thus allowing the identification of available capacity and research groups. Online collaborative working on these areas is facilitated, as well as direct communication mechanisms between users to encourage interaction and collaboration.

4. GENDER RESEARCH 4 COVID 19: considering the current outbreak of new coronavirus, COVID-19, growing uncertainty and social unease, as well as scientific and technological capacity in Portugal, the Science and Technology Foundation (FCT), in conjunction with the Secretary of State for Citizenship and Equality, and with the support of the Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality (Comissão para a Cidadania e Igualdade de Género - CIG), provides special support - GENDER RESEARCH 4 COVID 19 - for projects and initiatives that facilitate the production and dissemination of knowledge regarding the gender impacts of the pandemic caused by COVID-19 and the dissemination of contingency plans and measures adopted to contain and resolve it. 16 research projects have been approved, representing an investment of €506,000.

5. RESEARCH 4 COVID-19: an initiative launched by the Science and Technology Foundation (FCT), in collaboration with the Agency for Clinical Research and Biomedical Innovation (Agência de Investigação Clínica e Inovação Biomédica - AICIB), which aims to support ongoing and future R&D projects, as well as initiatives that support the NHS in its work combating the pandemic. 121 projects were approved with a total funding of €3.8 M.

6. Verão com Ciência (Summer with Science): an initiative launched by the Science and Technology Foundation (FCT), aims to fund scholarships and training plans, seeking to encourage face-to-face activities for students, teachers and researchers, thus creating innovative solutions and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. 87 training sessions by 22 institutions and 1,175 research initiation and research fellowships will be funded, with a total investment of €2.4 M.

More places in higher education

A total of 56,866 places were made available via the 2020 general access system (4,700 more than initially announced in July 2020), which represents an increase of 10.3 % compared to last year. Most of these new places are for the most popular courses and those with the greatest concentration of better students. Compared to 2019, the increase in places is 12 % at polytechnics and 9 % at universities.

To combat regional imbalances, the number of places made available in institutions located in regions with lower demographic pressure has increased more than others. There is also an increase in the number of places in study cycles that focus on training in digital skills, with a more significant increase in institutions located in regions with lower demographic pressure.

It is estimated that the total number of new entrants to higher education in all study cycles, both public and private, will reach around 90,000 new students enrolled in the next academic year 2020/21 (as opposed to around 84,000 in 2019), including: i) the National Access Competition, which represents around 2/3 of the entrants; ii) other forms of entry into the public system; iii) short training (technical higher professional courses, cTESP); and iv) entry into the private system.

For more information, see the DGES website. 

Foreign student access to higher education

Decree-Law No 33/2020, 1 July, approved exceptional measures to ensure access to higher education for students from foreign upper-secondary education systems for the 2020/2021 academic year. This measure is being taken because, due to the current pandemic, various foreign and international education systems have made changes to how upper-secondary education is completed, including the waiving of national assessment tests leading to the completion of that level of education. Like in Portugal, the lack of final assessment exams in foreign and international upper-secondary education systems prevents all students from upper-secondary education from applying. As such, exceptional measures are necessary to ensure these students (many of them emigrants and family members residing with them) can continue their studies.

To this end, the government decrees that those who have completed upper-secondary school courses from France, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Canada, Belgium, Cape Verde, the Netherlands and Norway, as part of European Schools, International Baccalaureate and Cambridge Assessment International Education programmes, as well as other countries where the cancellation of final upper-secondary school exams has been employed to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic, may exceptionally apply to the Portuguese higher education system in the 2020/2021 academic year.

Digital training programme for SMEs in the Interior +CO3SO Digital

As part of the Digital Transition Action Plan, approved by the Council of Ministers Resolution No 30/2020, 21 April, a set of measures was also approved, including the Digital Training Programme for SMEs in the Interior - +CO3SO Digital (Measure No. 7), coordinated by IEFP, I. P.. This programme will be implemented in polytechnics in the interior of the country.

Digital innovation hubs for entrepreneurship

As part of the Digital Transition Action Plan, approved by the Council of Ministers Resolution No 30/2020, 21 April, a set of measures was also approved, including the Digital Innovation Hubs for Entrepreneurship (Measure No. 8), coordinated by IAPMEI, I.P.. This network of hubs involves several bodies, including research centres and universities.

Intensive and specialised digital training programme - UpSkill

As part of the Digital Transition Action Plan, approved by the Council of Ministers Resolution No 30/2020, 21 April, a set of measures was also approved, including the intensive and specialised digital training programme - UpSkill (Measure 2), coordinated by the Portugal Digital Mission Body. This Programme uses the network of polytechnics for theoretical training.

«Skills 4 post-Covid - skills for the future» initiative

The "Skills 4 post-Covid - Skills for the Future" initiative aims to consolidate and improve the joint response of science and higher education systems to the challenges brought by COVID-19. Organised by the Directorate-General for Higher Education (Direção-Geral do Ensino Superior - DGES), in close coordination with the OECD, higher education institutions and public and private employers, facilitating speedy adaptation in teaching, learning, work and research practices, as well as approaches that will need to be consolidated to better prepare for the transition to the post-COVID-19 period.

Vocational education students entering higher education

On 5 March, the Government approved legislation (Decree-Law No 11/2020, 2 April) which, by the end of the legislature, aims to double the number of those students entering higher education after secondary-level vocational education and specialised artistic courses.

There is still considerable inequality regarding access to higher education, especially for students who have taken the vocational route. Current data indicate that, while 85 % of students who finish secondary school via the traditional science or humanities path enter higher education, for vocational education students the percentage is just 18 %, "equivalent to 4,500 students per year". To eradicate this imbalance and adapt the higher education access system to a wider range of secondary-level students, the Government is approving new measures that foresee students taking exams at the higher education institutions they apply to, in order to assess whether they have the knowledge and skills considered necessary to succeed in the respective study cycle.

RESEARCH 4 COVID 19

The Science and Technology Foundation (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia - FCT) launched the initiative «RESEARCH 4 COVID 19» in March 2020, responding to the needs created by the current epidemiological crisis in the country.

This is exceptional funding to support research and development (R&D) projects and initiatives already underway or short-term projects to be undertaken that may meet the needs of the National Health Service (Serviço Nacional de Saúde- SNS). The Agency for Clinical Research and Biomedical Innovation (Agência de Investigação Clínica e Inovação Biomédica - AICIB) is also collaborating on this initiative. Its objective is to mobilise Portugal’s existing scientific and technological capacity to fight the new coronavirus and COVID-19, including the reorientation of ongoing activities with this purpose. Specifically, it aims to encourage R&D activities with a short-term impact that can contribute to:

• domestic management of the epidemiological crisis
• improving the health systems’ response to COVID-19
• managing patients and/or the implementation of public health measures, according to the provisions of the Directorate General for Health’s (Direção-Geral da Saúde - DGS) National New Coronavirus Preparation and Response Plan (COVID-19).

The R&D projects and initiatives to be funded may involve, among others:

• new preventative tools
• therapeutic advances
• diagnostic methods
• clinical and epidemiological studies, and
• R&D activities that include a socio-cultural component and projects that help build a resilient society capable of dealing with the current uncertainty, especially for older people and those in higher risk groups.

This support is designed for, among others:

• R&D units at higher education institutions and their institutes
• State laboratories and other public research institutions
• scientific societies or not-for-profit scientific associations
• public or private not-for-profit institutions
• business bodies working in partnership with research institutions.