Following consultations with stakeholders in the sector, including universities, polytechnics, unions, students, private education, the Coordinating Council for Higher Education, and the National Education Council, the new version of the proposed RJIES was sent today to partners and parliamentary groups. It will be reviewed and assessed by the Council of Ministers before proceeding to discussion and voting in the Assembly of the Republic.
The ministry announced that the new legislative proposal introduces changes to the revision of the RJIES sent to parliament in February, which was not discussed due to the premature end of the legislature. Now, the Government seeks in the new legislature to achieve the widest possible consensus about a strategic document representing a structural advance in Portugal’s higher education system.
The proposed revision of the RJIES introduces “two types of higher education institutions to ensure greater symmetry between the two subsystems and to align with other systems in the European higher education area: universities (university nature) and polytechnic universities (polytechnic nature).”
Currently, the Portuguese higher education system includes universities, headed by rectors, and polytechnic institutes, led by presidents. Both institutions can confer the academic degree of doctor.
According to the Government’s proposal to revise the RJIES, future polytechnic universities “will not be required to confer the degree of doctor, although they may do so by meeting the requirements set in the decree-law on degrees and diplomas.”
Both universities and polytechnic universities will be led by directly elected rectors. However, “greater flexibility is introduced in the distribution of weights among electoral bodies, with a minimum representation requirement of 10% for each of the four groups.”
“With the remaining 60%, each higher education institution will have the autonomy to define the distribution of representation in its statutes,” states the ministry’s communication.
The ministry clarifies that the newly unveiled RJIES proposal maintains the “reinforcement of autonomy at the budgetary, financial, and patrimonial levels and in human resource management as outlined in the previous version,” ensuring that “the legislative changes will be budget-neutral for higher education institutions, guaranteeing the stability and predictability necessary for medium- and long-term strategy development.”
The Ministry of Education, Science, and Innovation’s statement adds that “management decisions previously dependent on governmental intervention are being transferred to the appropriate organs of higher education institutions.”
The new version of the RJIES proposal continues to provide for “mechanisms that simplify and allow mergers between universities and polytechnic universities, as well as enabling the integration or merger of private higher education establishments into public higher education institutions,” while maintaining “restrictions on hiring faculty or researchers in academic units with a high level of inbreeding, where the doctoral degree was obtained at the same institution less than three years ago.”
The ministry’s note further states that the intention remains for higher education institutions to “have the autonomy to request the accreditation of their courses by accreditation agencies that conduct evaluations according to quality assurance standards and guidelines in the European higher education area.”
The proposed new RJIES by the Government also includes the National Council for Pedagogical Innovation in Higher Education as an advisory body to the Government and clarifies the obligation of institutions “to promote the development of the regions where they are located and contribute to the internationalization of higher education.”
The Ministry of Education, Science, and Innovation will hold consultations with sector representatives over the next two weeks regarding the new RJIES revision proposal.
The current Legal Regime of Higher Education Institutions has been in force since 2007 and was due for review in 2013.
The ministry indicates it is “misaligned with the current reality of the higher education system and society and contains several bureaucratic barriers that prevent higher education institutions from fully defining and developing their visions and strategies within their autonomy.”
On Wednesday, speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the Science Meeting 2025, the Minister of Education, Science, and Innovation, Fernando Alexandre, expressed an intention to unify faculty and scientific research careers, a change dependent on the RJIES revision outcome.
