Portuguese Public Higher Education System: Contributions for Reform

Abstract

The Portuguese higher education, as a system, has
known, throughout the last three decades, how to answer to the
needs of the Country. Currently, is it ready to face the challenges
that come with its integration in the European Higher Education
Area? The study we made reveals that, since 2000, the successive
Portuguese government officials show a high degree of
dissatisfaction concerning the performance of the higher
education system, noting that this level of dissatisfaction was
constant in spite of the changes in power. The national and
foreign experts who have discussed the Portuguese education
system have a particularly critical review and call for its reform.
The heads of institutions, student leaders and national experts we
heard consider that the network of institutions and higher
education programmes is inadequate and requires a reform. The
study finds that there is a common conclusion which confirms the
need to reform the Portuguese higher education and presents the
direction of the policies which, according to the study, should
guide the reform of the Portuguese public higher education
system..