ENGINEERING EDUCATION IN PORTUGAL

Portugal has two systems of engineering education: the university system, which is the oldest; and the polytechnic system that began offering higher education when the former industrial schools were converted into engineering higher education schools that are now part of polytechnic schools.

The publication of Administrative Rule 645/88 of 21^st September 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^th July, reduces the differences, at least the formal ones, between polytechnic and university degrees.

Back to home page Portugal