Portugal

image/svg+xml Map of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) Map of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) A blank map of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and countries fully surrounded by the EHEA. Every country has an id which is its ISO-3116-1-ALPHA2 code in lower case. Members of the EU have a class="eu", all EHEA countries have a class="europe", non-EHEA countries have a class="nonehea". Image based on https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blank_map_of_Europe_(with_disputed_regions).svg by Júlio "Tintazul" Reis and Marian "maix" Sigler. Made by Colin Tück, EQAR, 2017 Released under CreativeCommons Attribution ShareAlike (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/).
  • Membership in EQAR
    Portugal has been a Governmental Member of EQAR since March 2008.

    Read more: all Governmental Members of EQAR

  • General information on higher education

    The Portuguese higher education system includes universities and polytechnics (institutions which provide profession-based training) which may be public or private. While all institutions may offer first and second cycle degree programmes, third cycle degree programmes (doctorate/PhD) are offered by universities and university institutes only.

  • National external quality assurance requirements

    With the introduction of a lighter touch approach, some programme accreditations may simply undergo a desk research instead of a full programme accreditations. Light touch approach is available for higher education institutions that have successfully undergone an institutional accreditations and have been certified through the institutional audit approach. In these cases only a sample of programmes is assessed, and the institution is subjected to additional annual monitoring.

    • Institutional Assessment
      Carried out every six years, years, at the end of each regular cycle of assessment/accreditation of all study programmes in operation

    • Accredition of study programmes in operation
      The usual period of validity of the accreditation is 6 years. In case of a lighter touch approach, only a desk analysis is carried out.

  • Cross-border quality assurance

    In Portugal under certain conditions higher education institutions may choose a suitable EQAR-registered agency.

    Generally yes, but only under certain conditions.

    • Eligibility requirements for foreign agencies: the QA agency must be approved by the Agency for Assessment and Accreditation of Higher Education (A3ES) (see)

    • Conditions for the agencies’ work (e.g. criteria to be used): own criteria.

    • Recognition of reviews carried out by foreign agencies: on a case by case decision, the Executive Board of A3ES may accept the result of the assessment / accreditation procedure at programme or institutional level from other QA agencies, as long as they follow the ESG.

    Read more: countries where higher education institutions may choose a suitable EQAR-registered agency

  • European Approach for Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes

    In Portugal the European Approach is available to higher education institutions under certain conditions.

    Read more: countries where the European Approach is available to higher education institutions

  • Further information

Registered agencies operating in Portugal