Portuguese universities "a success story"

Keywords Higher education, Grants, Portugal

EU support has helped the Portuguese higher-education system to progress enormously in the last 30 years.

Professor Julio Pedrosa, President of the Portuguese Universities' Rectors'Council, told a meeting in Brussels:

We have moved from a situation, in 1970, in which the country had four universities in three towns, to more than 150 institutions in all the territory today.

Portuguese universities have made fast and fantastic progress, mainly because of the contribution of the EU. This has allowed us to be partners, to co-operate and to be internationally active in research.

He said that the Portuguese Government had made a strategic decision to devote much of the money it had received in EU structural funds to its education system and research. The money was spent on building laboratories, libraries and lecture theatres, and on buying equipment.

Professor Pedrosa continued:

The government realized that without having a properly qualified population, the country would be left behind.

Education secretary, Jose Joaquim Reis, said the higher-education system was one of the best results of a democratic Portugal. He added:

Lifelong learning and the inclusion of new and different publics,certification of knowledge and skills obtained outside university, and deeper institutionalization are among the challenges for universities in the near future.

Further information is available from Ana Teresa Caetano, PRELO –Portuguese Research Liaison Office, 60 rue de la Concorde, B-1050 Brussels,Belgium. Tel: +32 2 511 1650; Fax: +32 2 512 6539.