Education in Portugal

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Education in Portugal
File:Ministry of Education Portugal.gif
Min. of Ed. & M. Si., Te. and Hig. Ed.1
MinistersMaria de Lurdes Rodrigues
Mariano Gago
National education budget (2006)
Budget€6.1 billion
General details
Primary languagesPortuguese
System typeCentral
Origins
University Schools
Politechnic Schools
Industrial Institutes
Polytechnical Institutes
Major reorganizations
Bologna process		12th century2 (established)
12903 (established)
1837 to 19114
1852 to 19745
1970s - 1980s6 (established)
1990s7
20108 (projected date of completion)
Literacy (2003)
Total92,5
Male95
Female90
Enrollment
Total1,930,645
Primary767,872
Secondary766,172
Post secondary396,601
Attainment
Secondary diploma15
Post-secondary diploma9
1The Ministry of Education covers all education levels except higher education. The Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education is responsible for higher education (university and polytechnic subsystems).
2The first medieval schools were catholic church related, including the first medieval university established in 1290.
3The first Portuguese university is established in Lisbon in 1290. It is today's University of Coimbra.
4Two Polytechnic Schools were originaly created in 1837 in Lisbon and Porto, and were later merged into the Universities of Lisbon and Porto created in 1911.
5The Industrial Institutes were created in 1852. Discontinued the industrial vocational studies policy, they will gave bird to some of the older schools and institues that compose today's Politechnical Institutes. Some faculties of Lisbon's universities also originated from the original Instituto Industrial de Lisboa.
6The Polytechnical Institutes were created during the 1970s and 1980s as groups of new and existing institutes and schools.
7Several reforms and reorganizations of the overall educational system were performed, including changes on the polytechnics competences, introduction of new exams in basic and secondary schools, and extensive changes in the curricula of all levels of education.
8The Bologna process lead to a new wave of reforms and changes in education since the late 1990s onwards, specially in the universities and polytechnics.

Education in Portugal is a subject of controversy due to its complexities and state of flux. There are also concerns related to the large dropout rates (mostly in the secondary and higher education systems) and the multi generational high functional illiteracy rate, when compared with other developed countries. The education system of Portugal is regulated by the State through the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Science and Technology and Higher Education. The public education system is the most popular and well established, but there are also many private schools at all levels of education.

Pre-primary education

Pre-primary education is optional from the ages of three to 5, and is provided in both state-run and private nursery schools. State-run nurser provision is free of charge; fees are payable for private nursery schools. The schools are known as Jardins-de-Infância (Kindergardens).

Pre-higher education

Basic Education lasts for nine years divided into three stages of four, two and three years respectively. The stages are respectively Ensino Básico – 1º Ciclo; Ensino Básico – 2º Ciclo and Ensino Básico – 3º Ciclo. A Diploma/Certificate is awarded at the end of the third stage. Secondary education - public, private and cooperative - is compulsory and consists of a three-year cycle after basic education. Access is through the Certificate of Basic Education. There are two types of courses: general courses and technical/vocational courses, providing instruction in technical, technological, professional fields and in the Portuguese language and culture. Permeability between the courses is guaranteed. The teaching and practice of technical, technological or artistic courses are provided by vocational schools and special schools for education in Arts. Courses are sanctioned by the Certificado de Habilitações do Ensino Secundário/Diploma de Ensino Secundário (Secondary School Credential), which is the prerequisite for access to higher education.

Basic education

In Portugal, Basic Education consists of nine years of schooling divided into three sequential cycles of education of four, two and three years.

Children aged six by 15 September must be enrolled in their first school year in that calendar year. In addition, children who reach the age of six between 16 September and 31 December may be authorized to attend the first stage of education, provided a request is submitted by their parents or guardians to the school nearest to their residence (or place of work) during the annual enrolment period. State-run schools are free of charge. The first cycle of basic mandatory education covers years 1st-4th, the second cycle years 5th-6th and the third cycle years 7th-9th. The curriculum contains only general education until the 9th year at which point vocational subjects are introduced.

Subjects List

1º Ciclo - 1st Cycle

  • Portuguese Language
  • (Physical and Social) Environment Study
  • Mathematics
  • English (compulsory starting from 2005-2006)

Other Subjects like Physical Education, Musical Education, Catholic (or other confessions) Moral and Religious Education, are taught too, but are facultative and according to school resources.

2º Ciclo - 2nd Cycle

  • Portuguese Language
  • Mathematics
  • History and Geography of Portugal
  • Foreign Language I/English (levels 1 and 2)
  • Natural Sciences
  • Visual and Technological Education (Arts and Hand Works)
  • Physical Education
  • Musical Education
  • Personal and Social Development or Catholic (or other confessions) Moral and Religious Education.
  • Project Area
  • Accompanished Study
  • Civical Formation

3º Ciclo - 3rd Cycle

7th and 8th years

  • Portuguese Language
  • Mathematics
  • Foreign Language I/English (levels 3 and 4)
  • Foreign Language II/French (levels 1 and 2))
  • Natural Sciences
  • World History
  • Geography
  • Physics and Chemistry
  • Visual Education (Arts)
  • Technological Education (Hand Works)
  • Physical Education
  • Personal and Social Development or Catholic (or other confessions) Moral and Religious Education.
  • Project Area
  • Accompanished Study
  • Civical Formation

9th Year

Same subjects, plus:

  • Information and Communication Technologies.
  • Option between Visual Education and Technological Education.

Secondary education

It is only after the 9th grade of basic schooling that the Portuguese General Education system branches out into different secondary programmes, one higher education-oriented (general secondary courses/programmes) and the other more work-oriented (technological secondary courses/programmes). The conclusion of secondary education (general or technological courses) with passing grades confers a diploma, which will certificate the qualification thus obtained and, in the case of work-oriented programmes the qualification for specific jobs. All General and Technological courses share the following subjects known as General Formation:

  • Portuguese Language
  • Philosophy
  • Foreign Language I/II (10th and 11th years)
  • Information and Communication Technologies (10th year)
  • Personal and Social Development or Catholic (or other confessions) Moral and Religious Education (as above, facultative)

General Courses

  • Sciences and Technologies
  • Social and Human sciences
  • Socio-Economic Sciences
  • Languages and Literature
  • Visual Arts.

Technological Courses

  • Civil Construction
  • Electronics
  • Computing
  • Equipment Design
  • Multimedia
  • Administration
  • Marketing
  • Environment and Territory Order
  • Social action
  • Sport.

Other types of school education

There are also special modalities of school education. The programmes offered by vocational schools, those of the apprenticeship system and those of recurrent studies are considered as a special modality of school education. These programmes are not regular, because they are not included in the mainstream regular progression of the education system to which they are an alternative given that they were designed to respond to specific educational needs of different target-groups of the population. All of these programmes offer initial vocational and education training, although the recurrent studies also offer general education. Recurrent education consists of non-regular programmes of study or modular or single units because they are not complete training cycles and they are not included in the regular progression of the education system. The recurrent education provides a second opportunity of training for those who did not undertake training at the normal age or who left school early. Recurrent education covers the three cycles of basic education and the secondary education. The recurrent education is characterized by the flexibility and adaptability to the students’ learning cycle, availability, knowledge and experiences. The recurrent secondary education branches into two types of courses: the general course for those who want to continue their studies and the technical courses that are work-oriented and confer a level III vocational certificate, although they also permit the access to higher education. Any of the secondary courses, vocational courses, apprenticeship courses (level III), recurrent courses and others (artistic and those of technological schools) share a three-dimensional structure (although the importance of each dimension could vary according to the specific course):

a) general / socio-cultural

b) specific / scientific

c) technical / technological / practical / vocational

The Portuguese educational/vocational system is open. This means that once any student finishes his/her basic studies successfully he/she can choose, freely, any kind of course in any training domain/area. Any secondary course completed successfully allows the student apply to any course of higher education, independently of the training domain the student chose in the secondary level of education.

In Portugal initial vocational education and training can be divided into two main modalities according to the Ministry responsible for the training:

a) Initial vocational education and training in the education system (under the regulation of the Ministry of Education): - The technological secondary courses are work-oriented and confer qualification for specific jobs, which correspond to the E.U. level III of vocational qualifications. There are eleven technological courses in the domain of natural sciences, arts, social-economic sciences and humanities; - The vocational schools courses are a special modality of education that has a primary goal: the development of youngsters’ vocational training. In this type of course the students spend most of their time in practical, technological, technical and artistic training, which allows the development of specific skills indispensable to an occupation. The vocational courses are drawn to give answers to both local and regional labour market needs. These courses function under the regulation of the Ministry of Education, although under the direct initiative and responsibility of civil society institutions, such as municipalities, enterprises, trade unions, etc. The vocational courses are available in the third cycle of basic education (level II) – only a few - and in the secondary education (level III). - The technical recurrent courses. In the secondary education, the recurrent studies branches into two different types of courses: the general courses and the technical courses. The latter are work-oriented, vocationally oriented to confer a level III vocational certificate; - The courses of initial qualification can be promoted by schools lecturing the third cycle of mandatory education. If it is necessary, schools can establish protocols with other institutions such as municipalities, enterprises or vocational training centres. These courses are open to a) youngsters who have a 9th grade diploma, without any vocational qualification, and who do not intend to continue their studies; and b) youngsters who, having reached fifteen years of age and attended the 9th grade, did not achieve the basic education certificate.

b) Initial vocational education and training in the labour market (under the regulation of the Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity through the Institute of Employment and Vocational Training): - Apprenticeship system. The apprenticeship courses are part of an initial vocational training system alternating between the school and the workplace, addressing mainly youngsters aged between fifteen and twenty five years who are not included in the mandatory school system. The training process alternates between the professional/vocational (where the socio-cultural, scientific-technological and the practice training in training context takes place) and the workplace (where the practice training in work context takes place).

Higher Education

The tower of the University of Coimbra

Overview

Higher education in Portugal is divided into two subsystems: university and non-university (polytechnical education and other higher education schools), and it is provided in autonomous public universities, private universities, public or private polytechnic institutions and higher education institutions of other types. The university system has a strong theoretical basis and is highly research-oriented; the non-university system provides a more practical training and is profession-oriented. 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 28000 students. The Portuguese Catholic University, the oldest private university, was instituted by decree of the Holy See and is recognized by the State of Portugal since 1971. Private higher education institutions cannot operate if they are not recognized by the Ministry of Education. Access is regulated by the same procedures as those for state higher education institutions. The two systems of higher education (university and polytechnic) are linked and it is possible to transfer from one to the other by extraordinary competition. It is also possible to transfer from a public institution to a private one and vice-versa.

There are also special higher education institutions linked with the military and the police. These specific institutions have generally a good reputation and are popular among the youngsters because its courses are a passport to the military/police career. These state-run institutions are the Air Force Academy, the Military Academy, the Naval School and the Instituto Superior de Ciências Policiais e Segurança Interna.

Situation

In Portugal, going to the university before the carnation revolution was almost exclusive for the students from wealthy and influential families. Today the higher education, which includes non-university institutions, is generalized but very heterogeneous, with different tonalities and subsystems. Overcrowded classrooms, obsolete curricula, disloyal competition among institutions, frequent rules changing in the sector and increasingly higher fees charged (inside the public higher education system) are big problems for many students. 40% of the higher education students do not finish their degrees. Although all the problems, there are many good institutions with a long tradition of excellence in teaching and research, where students and professors could reach their highest academic ambitions.

University and polytechnic

Portugal has two main systems of higher education:

  • 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). It is composed by fifteen state-run polytechnic institutes and several private similar institutions.

The state-run universities are governed by a Rector, and are groupings of faculties and university institutes. They have been created mostly in the most populated and industrialized areas near the coast (although strategically balanced with three establishments opened after 1970 in the northern, central and southern interior regions), being established in the main cities. Two of these universities are located in Azores (Açores) and Madeira Islands, and the remaining eleven in Continental Portugal. Three of them are located in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal (four if considered also ISCTE, a large and independent university institute). The universities are regulated by the Ministry of Science and Technology and Higher Education, and are represented as a whole by the CRUP - Conselho de Reitores das Universidades Portuguesas.

The state-run polytechnic institutes (Institutos Politécnicos) are governed by a President, and are groupings of colleges, institutes and schools. They have been created across the country after 1980. The fast expansion of the polytechnic institutes, whose entrance and teaching requirements are usually less demanding than the universities criteria, was an administrative attempt to reduce the elevated rate of pre-higher education abandon and to increase the number of (under)graduates per one million inhabitants in Portugal which were dramatically below the European average (this do not mean, many of its students haven't become great and distintive professionals with recognized competence). For the Portuguese State it was also considerably faster and cheaper to build the Institutos Politécnicos in all district capitals across the country, than build a few new universities. They are regulated by the Ministry of Science and Technology and Higher Education, and are represented as a whole by the ADISPOR - Associação dos Institutos Superiores Politécnicos Portugueses.

University sub sector

The public university schools have a long history in Portugal. They started at the Middle Ages, and like the other European universities at the time, they were founded by the monarchs under the authority and supervision of the Catholic Church. For many centuries there was only one university, the University of Coimbra founded in 1290 in Lisbon and transferred between Coimbra and Lisbon several times. The University of Évora was an old university which operated between 1559 and 1759, but it was shut down during the Marquis of Pombal government, because it was run by Jesuits, and the marquis had a strong anticlerical creed. A university at Évora is working again since 1973 as a state-run university. With a largely illiterate population, that two universities at Coimbra and Évora, and later some higher education schools in Lisbon (Escola Politécnica: 1837-1911; Curso Superior de Letras: 1859-1911; and Curso Superior de Comércio: 1884-1911) and Porto (successively Aula Náutica: 1762-1803; Real Academia da Marinha e Comércio: 1803-1837; and the Academia Politécnica: 1837-1911) were such good enough for a such small population inside a territory like the Continental Portugal of the 16th-19th centuries. During the 19th century some other isolated higher education schools were established. For instance, two surgery university schools were established: the Lisbon Royal School of Surgery and Porto Royal School of Surgery opened in 1825. They will be later incorporated into two new universities created in 1911 in Lisbon and Porto, which will also absorb the former Lisbon's Escola Politécnica and Curso Superior de Letras, and the Porto's Academia Politécnica, being reformed and upgraded to faculties in the same year. Other well succeeded institutions were the IST - Instituto Superior Técnico and the Instituto Superior de Comércio, successor of the former Curso Superior de Comércio, (today ISEG - Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão), both born from the former Lisbon Institute of Industry and Commerce which originated the creation of that university schools in 1911. With the advent of the Republic, University of Lisbon and University of Porto were created in 1911. In 1930, a new technical university in Lisbon was created, the Technical University of Lisbon, which incorporated the Instituto Superior Técnico and some other institutes and colleges such as the Instituto Superior de Comércio, and agriculture and veterinary schools. In 1972 the ISCTE was created in Lisbon by the decree Decreto-Lei nº 522/72, of 15 December, as a first step towards a new and innovative public university in the city. Due to the carnation revolution of 1974 this first faculty of a never completed larger projected university, stayed alone. In 1973 a new wave of state-run universities opened in Lisbon - the New University of Lisbon, Braga - the Minho University and Évora - the University of Évora. After 1974, the revolution's year, new public universities were created in Vila Real - the Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Aveiro - the Universidade de Aveiro, Covilhã - the Universidade da Beira Interior, Faro - the University of the Algarve, Madeira - the University of Madeira, and the Azores - the Universidade dos Açores. Some time later, many private universities started to open. Most private universities had a poor reputation and were known for making it easy for students to enter and also to get high grades. Actually, the Universidade Católica Portuguesa a private university at Lisbon and Porto founded before the others, in 1967, and officially recognized in 1971, is very prestigious. This private university has a particular status, being run by the Catholic Church (see list of universities in Portugal).

Since its creation, Portuguese universities have been the exclusive masters and doctoral degrees granters in the country. Today, as in the past, they have full autonomy to offer all major levels of academic degrees. Since the mid 2000s they are the institutions responsible for conducting, supervising and approve postgraduate degrees for some non-university higher education institutions previously unqualified to grant postgraduations, like was the case of the polytechnical institutes.

Polytechnic sub sector

The first entitled polytechnic schools in Portugal were created in 1837 in Lisbon (Escola Politécnica) and in Porto (Academia Politécnica). They were higher learning institutions conferring academic degrees and fully focused on the sciences, mathematics, and engineering. They merged into the faculties of sciences and engineering of the universities of Porto and Lisbon when the two universities were founded in 1911.

The current polytechnic subsector was created after the 1974 revolution with different features, a new vision and purpose. Since its creation in the late 1970s, polytechnic institutes used to offer only a three year course, awarding a bacharelato degree instead of a university licenciatura degree which was four to six years. The publication of Administrative Rule 645/88 of 21 September 1988 authorised polytechnic schools to teach two-year courses of specialised higher education (CESEs) within the fields already taught at the school. This system guaranteed a prominent independence between the two levels (Bachelor's and CESE) since it was not compulsory to maintain a coherence of subjects. The DESEs thus emerged much more as a post-graduate diploma than a complementary education to the Bachelor student who wanted a licentiate degree. Changing the structure of the CESEs into two-stage degrees obtained in two levels (bachelor's and licentiate, in which access to the second level is granted immediately after completing the first), as consigned in Administrative Rule 413A/98 of 17 July 1998, removed the formal differences.

By this government decree of July 1998 the polytechnics started to offer a two-stage curriculum (the first three years conferring a Bacharelato degree, the following two years a Licenciatura degree), both are Bachelor degrees, the universities offer a single bachelor degree of four to five years. This will be changed with the Bologna process with a new system of three years for a bachelor degree (Licenciatura). Two further years will grant a Masters degree (Mestrado) which will be conferred by the polytechnic institute. The Doctoral degree (Doutoramento) will be conferred only by a university, as it always have been, a polytechnic can prepare a doctoral degree but only an associated university will grant the degree (as it occur today with the Masters degree), although some polytechnics disagree with this because they believe they have not a worst reputation than some universities. Other polytechnics, most notably the ones of Bragança, Leiria, and Viseu, want their status changed to "Polytechnic University". Veiga Simão, former minister creator of the new universities and polytechnics after 1970, was commissioned by the Portuguese government in the late 1990s to study a new organization for higher education, and proposed the concept of "Polytechnic University", not to be applied to most current polytechnics though, but for a reorganized higher education sub sector.

In Portugal nursing and health technologies (paramedics; clinical analysis technicians; radiology technicians; etc.) are also non-university higher education courses, offered by nursing schools and schools of health technologies which are comparable to the polytechnic institutes. Some of these schools are actually integrated inside polytechnic institutes. There are many public and private schools of this kind across the country, and some cities, such as Lisbon and Coimbra, have more than one school of these. (see list of colleges and universities in Portugal).

In the past, during the 1980s, the former Polytechnic Institute of Faro, in the Algarve region, southern Portugal, was incorporated into the University of the Algarve, but as a totally independent institution in terms of staff, curricula and competences, remaining a full public polytechnic institution within a larger and independent public university. For the other side, the former Polytechnic Institute of Vila Real, in northern Portugal, was closed and then reformed, having been reorganized into a university in the 1980s - the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro.

Origins of polytechnics

Since 1950 to 1974 and the approval of decree Decreto-Lei 830/74 of 31 December 1974, some of the current polytechnic schools and institutions, even that created as industrial and commercial schools during the 19th century in Lisbon and Porto, were not higher education institutions. Between the 1950s and the 1970s, many were industrial and commercial schools of vocational education, and schools of primary education teachers. Current establishments of polytechnic studies in engineering such as the Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa, Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto, Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Coimbra, the nursing schools, and the current polytechnic schools of education (Escolas Superiores de Educação) were during that period (1950s-1970s) institutions without any relation with higher education. The admission to these schools were opened to people with no complete secondary education, being the universities reserved for students with full secondary school formation. For decades, this vocational schools did not have higher education status or credentials like they actually have now. It must be said that the Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa and the Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto, both born from the earlier industrial institutes (Instituto Industrial), were degree conferring institutions in technical engineering during different periods on their long histories before 1950, and were known by other institutional names.

The 19th century - the industrialization era - created the need for new education institutions in the country, the "industrial studies". In 1837, the Escola Politécnica (Polytechnic School) in Lisbon and the Academia Politécnica opens. Both were higher education schools, later reformed to create Lisbon's and Porto's Universities (1911). The Prime-Minister of the Kingdom, Fontes Pereira de Melo, created industrial schools in 1852 in Lisbon - the Instituto Industrial de Lisboa (Lisbon Institute of Industry, today's IST which is since 1911 a university institution of engineering, and the ISEL which born from a former vocational education school upgraded to polytechnic higher education school after 1974). In Porto, also in 1852, Pereira de Melo founded the Escola Industral (School of Industry, today's ISEP which born from the former vocational education school upgraded to polytechnic higher education school after 1974). With the advent of the republic, the Lisbon's Polytechnic School and the Porto's Polytechnic Academy were reformed and incorporated as faculties into the newly created University of Lisbon and University of Porto. During the 1980s, started a new era in Portugal's educational system with many polytechnic institutes opening in many cities, and the definitive abandon of a serious, solid and realistic strategy of intermediate skilled qualification through vocational and technical education. Some of the new polytechnics incorporated the institutes and schools created since 1974 in Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra, that had previously been vocational education schools for many decades. The polytechnic institutes were originally created to produce skilled intermediate technicians in specific areas, mainly for the industry and commerce but also for basic health and education, instead of specialists, lecturers, researchers and scientists that were already produced inside the Portuguese universities.

The Bologna process in Portugal

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's 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.

Degree significance

Note: with the Bologna process and the current reforms undertaken by Portuguese higher education institutions, some of this information may be outdated.

Bacharel ("Minor" bachelor degree): awarded after three years, the first stage in a polytechnic higher education program.

Licenciado ("Major" bachelor degree): four to five years of higher education in a university, or a polytechnic bachelor of three years plus one or two extra years.

Mestre (Master): The Mestre is an advanced degree in a specific scientific field, indicating capacity for conducting practical research. Courses usually last for four semesters and include lectures and the preparation and discussion of an original dissertation. It is only open to those who have obtained fourteen out of twenty in the Licenciatura course. Those who have obtained a mark below fourteen, may also be eligible for a Mestrado course after analysis of the curriculum by the university.

Doutor (Doctor): The Doutor is conferred by universities to those who have passed the Doctorate examinations and have defended a thesis. There is no fixed period to prepare for the Doctorate examinations. Candidates must hold the degree of Mestre or the Licenciado degree (or a legally equivalent qualification) with a final mark of at least sixteen out of twenty and have competences and merit that are recognized by the university.

Agregação (Aggregation): This is the highest qualification reserved to holders of the Doutor degree. It requires the capacity to undertake high level research and special pedagogical competence in a specific field. It is awarded after passing specific examinations.

Admission and inequalities

Admission to higher education level studies requires the secondary school credential, Diploma de Ensino Secundário, which are the first twelve study years. Students must have studied the subjects for which they are entering to be prepared for the entrance exams, but they are not required to have previously specialised in any specific area at the secondary school. Students sit for one or more entrance exams, Concurso nacional for public institutions or Concurso local for private institutions. In addition to passing entrance exams, students must fulfil particular prerequisites for the chosen course. Enrollment is limited; each year the institution establishes the number of places available. At the universities this is called the numerus clausus. For the public institutions the exam scores count for the final evaluation, which includes the secondary school average marks. Then the students have to choose six institutions/courses they prefer to attend, in preferential order. The ones, who reach the marks needed to attend the desired institution/course, given the attributed vacant, will be admitted. This means that the students could not be admitted at its first or second choice, but be admitted at the third or even sixth choice. In some cases, those entering polytechnics or nursing and health technologies schools, should have some previous vocational training and preference will be given to applicants from the catchment area of the institution concerned.

The public university courses demands generally much higher admission marks than most similar courses at the polytechnic institutes or private institutions. This is the first statistical fact among the higher education subsystems in Portugal. For the other side, higher grades inside the higher education institutions tend to be more frequent for those students of private, public polytechnic and some university courses that were globally the worst pre-higher education applicants. This implies a long-lasting reputation of lower teaching standards and easier entrance requirements in many public polytechnic, university, and private courses of some Portuguese institutions which are generally seen as being rather relaxed. This appears to be an injustice for thousands of others students admitted to more rigorous and selective institutions that will face the same competition in the labour market, where the graduation marks are many times decisive. This have allowed so many other inequalities such as the future impossibility of obtaining a masters or doctoral degree for that students with lower marks (usually less than 14, out of 20), and the higher average completion time for graduation and subsequent entrance into the labour market, with so different standards in so many heterogeneous institutions.

For instance, medicine is traditionally and effectively one of the most wanted courses in Portugal, and because of that, one of the most demanding in terms of exams and prerequisites. Normally a student who wants to attend the Medicine Faculty at one of the seven Portuguese public universities which exclusively offer this graduation course, have to get very high grades in the Chemistry and Biology entrance exams and have to have done an almost-brilliant secondary school course. Architecture, economics, electrical engineering, chemical engineering, civil engineering, computer sciences, biochemistry, dentistry or pharmacy at the main public universities, are on a smaller scale, another examples of courses which are traditionally the most selective and prestigious. In contrast with these, there are many courses offered by polytechnic institutes, private universities and also in a few public university departments, where the entrance requirements are sharply below the average. There are also some courses with low or even no demand and condemned to be extinguished.

Employability

After students graduate from a higher education institution, factors like the field of studies, the average grades achieved during the course and the prestige of the teaching institution, are relatively important to get a job. But the most important is perhaps the employ market conjuncture at the moment.

In Portugal, due to these factors, the higher education courses with a higher employability rate are medicine, nursing, health technician courses, several engineering specializations, computer sciences, economics and architecture.

For the other side, low employability is found among teaching, humanities and some social sciences fields of study, like history, geography, linguistic, philosophy, sociology; or in a smaller scale among the exact sciences and natural sciences, such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology or geology, when these courses are oriented towards a more common teaching career, instead of a more technical or scientific research career.

Law is also a course with an increasingly low employability rate, because there are too many institutions, both public and private, offering this subject.

A report made by Expresso Portuguese newspaper and dated from 2004 was taken to see which universities and colleges were the most desired by companies in the fields of engineering, structural engineering, marketing, management, economy and finance. [1]

Engineering (global):

structural engineering:

Software engineering:

Marketing:

Management:

Economy:

Finance:

Highly regarded institutions by the State

Among the biggest and most highly financed institutions of higher education in Portugal are the University of Coimbra, the University of Lisbon, the New University of Lisbon, the Technical University of Lisbon and the University of Porto. These five public universities manage the biggest budgets for teaching and research, have the largest number of enrolled graduation and postgraduation students, being renowned in aspects such as:

  • faculty quality
  • research & development production
  • research & development units
  • internationally recognized papers and publications
  • number of new applicants every year
  • number of new applicants admitted as their first choice
  • nationwide and international recognition
  • top-class infrastructures
  • wanted courses
  • renowned ex-students
  • robust and rigorous curricula
  • extra curricular programmes and activities

Although generally smaller and younger, the other public universities and the polytechnical institutes, are regional powerhouses in some studying/teaching areas. They have also contributed to the development of the local populations and to the improvement of their quality of life. This group of universities and polytechnics englobe the other state-run Portuguese institutions founded after 1970.

In the university subsector, University of Aveiro; Minho University, Universidade da Beira Interior (which were chosen to offer medicine graduation courses since the 2000s, when only Lisbon's, Porto's and Coimbra's public universities used to have that privilege before) and ISCTE have been frequently referred to as the "new generation" of the Portuguese university institutions, renowned in general for its innovative methods and modernity (see list of universities in Portugal).

In the polytechnical subsector's engineering field, Lisbon's ISEL, Porto's ISEP, and Coimbra's ISEC, are well-known in the country, and their former students are highly requested by Portuguese employers.

Portuguese Catholic University has generally been considered a prestigious private university, notably because of law, economics and business management degrees offered at its Lisbon's and Porto's Faculties. In a variable degree, other private institutions are also renowned in several fields, being highly regarded by many employers.

Teacher education

Training of pre-primary and primary/basic school teachers

Teachers of basic education attend 4-year courses in Escolas Superiores de Educação or at the universities to obtain a Licenciado degree.

Training of secondary school teachers

Teachers of secondary education must hold a Licenciado degree and follow courses that last for between four and six years. Studies are sanctioned by a Licenciado em Ensino or a Licenciatura - Ramo de Formação Educacional, according to the issuing institution. Educators and basic and secondary education teachers, with practice in regular or special education, may obtain a qualification to teach in specialized education. Continuous training for teachers is offered in Centros de Formação Continua.

Training of higher education teachers

Teachers at this level receive no formal professional training, but minimum qualifications are laid down for each category.

University: assistente estagiário (Licenciado); assistente (Mestre); professor auxiliar (Doutor); professor associado (Doutor and five years' service); professor catedrático (Agregação and three years' service).

Polytechnics: assistente (Licenciado); professor adjunto (Mestre or DESE); professor coordenador (Doutor and 3-years' service).

Non-traditional studies

At present, distance higher education is provided by the Universidade Aberta (Open University).

Private vs. public

Private Basic and Secondary schools and also private higher education institutions do exist in Portugal and are sometimes elite institutions (like the prestigious Universidade Católica Portuguesa in Lisbon and Porto, or some private primary, basic and secondary schools, mainly located in the biggest cities), existing among them many religious or speciality institutions. Some of the best ranked secondary schools in the country are private schools. This secondary schools ranking has been released every year in Portugal with little changes.

Some Portuguese employers and families are of the opinion that the existence of private education institutions, where accessibility is based primarily on ability to pay, is not as fair as the public system and could gloom the meritocracy concept, leading to easier entrance criteria and lower teaching standards. Some private institutions are known for making it easy for students to enter and also to get higher grades - as long as they pay. Others claim that the private systems could prevent a significant portion of Portugal's population from being able to attend these schools that is also unfair. The quotas imposed on public education institutions to create room for students from former Portuguese colonies, who get automatically a place in those institutions also creates a big problem in terms of fairness, as some of these students can enter with very low grades excluding a portion of the Portuguese born students from studying in the public institutions they want.

On the other side there are some people who prefer to attend private institutions because they don't trust in the public educational infrastructure they have near their residential area. This could be related with overcrowded classes, bad reputation, criminality levels, incidence of ethnic minorities generally considered problematic, lack of quality teaching staff or bad infrastructures in that specific institution.

Traditionally, public system's institutions are regarded in general as having higher quality and accountability, but private institutions have developed fastly after the 25 de Abril revolution of 1974, and some have today a great reputation. There are both public and private institutions considered of the highest standard and quality. However, a large majority of Portuguese students attend public schools, universities and colleges because it is considerably less expensive than the private ones, the public system has a much older implantation, and for the other side it covers well the entire territory. There are also some students who simply desire and can afford to attend an elite private institution, even if they have availiablity to attend one of the largest or most renowned public institutions.

School violence

The teaching quality of Portuguese learning institutions depends on the population that is receiving the training, their family background support, the teaching staff quality, the sociocultural environment and the economical development of that population. In some ghettos, specially in Greater Lisbon's suburbs where many immigrants, immigrant descendants from PALOP countries, among some other ethnic minorities, are concentrated, and also areas with higher unemployment rates and other severe social problems, exist schools with generalized high dropout and juvenile delinquency rates. In Greater Porto there are no African or other significant inmigrant ghettos like in Lisbon, but there is a high dropout and juvenile delinquency rates among nationals from former rural areas, of humble origins or from ethnic minorities from specific districts or quarters.

School violence in Portugal is not unique to public schools or the major urban centers. Public and private Portuguese schools have all experienced an increase in school violence. However, due to the general wealth and educational background of private school student's families, and the increased private security measures adopted, private schools have generally a lower level of violence.

Violence in Portuguese schools became an educational issue for the first time during the 1990s, mainly through the persistence of parental associations and teacher claims. However it must be said that this was not the first time that violence appeared in Portuguese schools as a significant situation. For decades, during the dictatorship, police violence against students was common inside universities. After the democratisation in 25 de Abril revolution of 1974 the occurrence of violent situations reached the highest point when the intense political debate in schools often ended in physical confrontations between students and even teachers (which was not generally seen as a school violence problem but as a reflection of the violence widely present in the political debate in society). Nevertheless this was a politically socialized and framed violence, quite different from the kind of violence we can find today. That one had political programs, this one is quite anomic. Its origin is very diverse, from poverty to psychological problems. Theft, random or systematic physical aggression, bullying, destruction of school or teachers properties are realities which become current in many schools.[2]

In May 2006, a television program was broadcast in RTP 1, titled Quando a violência vai à escola (When violence goes to the school) by journalist Mafalda Gameiro. Using hidden cameras in the classrooms, the program shows the violent behavior of many young students (with ages between 10 and 13 years old) inside the classroom, and the chaos and fear often generated. In 2004 and 2005, the Portuguese Ministry of Education reported over 1.200 agressions inside Portuguese schools.

Sources

See also

External links

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