Portugal from Re.ViCa

Partners situated in Portugal:

• Prof. Vitor Rocio, from the - Open University of Portugal is a member of Re.ViCa's International Advisory Committee.

Portugal in a nutshell

Source: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/po.html

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. Located in southwestern Europe, Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east. The Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira are also part of Portugal.

Portuguese education policy

The education system may be defined as the means and resources whereby the right to education is effectively enjoyed. It consists of a number of organised structures and activities, promoted and administered by a variety of institutions and other bodies (public and private organisations and co-operatives).

The main principles governing the work of the education system reflect the constitutional right to education and the State’s duty to promote democracy in education, as the guarantor of equality of opportunity in terms of both access to education and academic success and of the other conditions required to ensure that education contributes to individual personal development, to social progress and to democratic participation in public life. Respect for the freedom to learn and to teach is guaranteed, and the State may not take it on itself to institute educational or cultural programmes which conform to any particular philosophical, aesthetic, political, ideological or religious systems of belief.

The Basic Educational Law, approved by the Assembly of the Republic in 1986 (Law no. 46/86, of 14 October, subsequently amended in respect of certain clauses by Law no. 115/97, of 19 September) establishes the basic framework for organising and structuring the work of the current education system. This law established minimum schooling of nine years, with a minimum school leaving age of 15.

source: [1]

Higher education

Higher education in Portugal is divided into two main subsystems: university and polytechnic education, and it is provided in autonomous public universities, private universities, public or private polytechnic institutions and higher education institutions of other types.

Universities in Portugal

The university system has a strong theoretical basis and is highly research-oriented; Degrees in some fields such as medicine, law, natural sciences, economics, psychology or veterinary are university. Other fields like engineering, management, education, agriculture, sports, or humanities are found both in university and polytechnic systems.Many universities are usually organized by Faculty (Faculdade).

The university system, which is the oldest, has its origins in the 13th century. It is composed of thirteen public universities, one public university institute, a public open university, and several private universities and university institutes.

The oldest university is the University of Coimbra founded in 1290, and the biggest by number of enrolled students is the University of Porto with about 28,000 students. The Catholic University of Portugal, the oldest non-state-run university (concordatary status), was instituted by decree of the Holy See and is recognized by the State of Portugal since 1971.

Polytechnics in Portugal

The non-university system provides a more practical training and is profession-oriented. Nursing, preschool education, accounting technician, or health care technician degrees, are only offered in the polytechnic system. Institute (Instituto) and School (Escola) are also common designations for autonomous units of Portuguese higher learning institutions, and are always used in the polytechnical system, but also in several universities.

The polytechnic system, that began offering higher education in the 1980s after the former industrial and commercial schools were converted into engineering and administration higher education schools (so its origins could be traced back to some earlier vocational education schools of the 19th century).[2] It is composed of fifteen state-run polytechnic institutes, public and private non-integrated polytechnic institutions, and other similar institutions.

Higher education reform

The Bologna Process

The Bologna Process was a European reform process aimed at establishing a European Higher Education Area by 2010. It was an unusual process in that it was loosely structured and driven by the 45 countries participating in it in cooperation with a number of international organisations, including the Council of Europe.

The reform aim was to create by 2010 a higher education system in Europe, organised in such a way that:

   * it is easy to move from one country to the other (within the European Higher Education Area) – for the purpose of further study or employment;
   * the attractiveness of European higher education is increased so many people from non-European countries also come to study and/or work in Europe;
   * the European Higher Education Area provides Europe with a broad, high quality and advanced knowledge base, and ensures the further development of Europe as a stable, peaceful and tolerant community.

Portugal, like other European States, has conducted educational policies and reforms to accomplish these objectives. This include the reorganization of both university and polytechnic subsystems and the implementation of extensive legal and curricular changes. Since its field application in 2006 is has being widely contested by students (many lost an academic year with the change), and several universities had disrepute the concept by introducing integrated master degrees in several courses.

Structural development

Table I: HEIs' key figures in 2006 and vision 2020

	Polytechnics (2006)	Polytechnics (2020)	Universities (2006)	Universities (2020)
Number of institutions
Students (FTE)
Students (FTE) / teachers (%)
Basic degree / teachers (%)
Passing percentage (%)
Graduate employment and continuation to postgraduate studies (%)
Doctorate degrees / professor (%)	-	-
Scientific publications / teaching and research staff (%)	-	-

Structural development in universities

=====Table II: Consequences of the structural development in Portuguese universities=====

Nr	The new university / consortium	Consists of	Starts on
1.
2.
3.

Structural development in polytechnics

=====Table III: Consequences of the structural development in Portuguese polytechnics=====

Nr	The new polytechnic	Consists of	Starts / started on
1.
2.
3.

Portuguese HEIs in the information society

Information society strategy period

For more information see: Major e-learning initiatives in Portugal.

References

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