The Government wants to “guide the higher education network towards the future” and reinforce the “role of higher education institutions as anchors of regional development and innovation”, starting with the conversion of the polytechnic institutes of Leiria and Porto into the universities of Leiria and the West and the Técnica do Porto. THE Transformation, Recovery and Resilience Plan (PTRR) allocates 150 million euros for this purpose and for the implementation of program contracts with institutions located in regions with low population density or particularly affected by extreme weather phenomena.
The implementation horizon of this plan, which was approved this Tuesday by the Council of Ministers, extends from 2026 to 2034. It does not detail many measures, but, in terms of education, it states that it will cover “planning actions, adaptation of infrastructures, acquisition of equipment, organizational training, technological integration and institutional articulation”.
The decision to transform these two polytechnics into universities is not consensual. In their opinions, both the Coordinating Council of Higher Polytechnic Institutes (CCISP), and the Council of Rectors of Portuguese Universities (CRUP), state multiple reservations: although they recognize the merit and legitimacy of the projects that aim to create the University of Leiria e Oeste and the Technical University of Porto, they have doubts about the moment chosen for their approval, considering that it is not appropriate to move forward with these transformations simultaneously with the review of the Legal Regime of Higher Education Institutions (RJIES).
CRUP, for example, warns of the risk of fragmentation of the higher education network and the fact that these decisions could create a precedent, encouraging other institutions to follow the same path without a planned framework. Therefore, he argues that any reconfiguration must result from an integrated national strategy and not from “case-by-case analysis”.
This Tuesday, the president of the National Federation of Polytechnic Higher Education Student Associations, Diogo Machado, was heard at the parliamentary committee on Education and Science, where he warned of the risk of losing the differentiation of missions that the university and polytechnic subsystems have. He regretted that this matter had not been widely debated by the sector and aligned with a strategic vision for higher education. Before the deputies, Diogo Machado also raised some doubts about how this transformation will be carried out — the current RJIES does not provide for any specific standard, so it will have to be “by decree” from the minister, he anticipated.
The president of the Polytechnic of Leiria has already rejected the criticism that this proposal comes at a time of review of several structuring documents for national higher education. Carlos Rabadao says that all this process began to be prepared three years ago and that the proposal to transform it into a university was presented to the Ministry of Education a year ago.
The proposal to create the Technical University of Porto was also presented last year. The Government understood include this transformation in PTRR.
In the face of trail of destruction that the storm Kristin he left in several schools in the Leiria and Marinha Grande region, the PTRR also foresees investments in the “resilience of the network and teaching infrastructures in the face of extreme phenomena”. Among the planned actions are the diagnosis of the territorial distribution of educational provision and the modernization of infrastructures with “more robust construction solutions”.
No values are advanced, but the document notes that the objective is to ensure that schools are prepared to withstand severe weather events and “ensure the continuity of the education system in emergency scenarios”.
