“What the news published today allows us to understand, through the words of the rector of the University of Porto, is that there were pressures to admit several students into the Faculty of Medicine who had not achieved the minimum grade required in the respective competition exam and that the Minister of Education might have been willing to proceed in this case in a manner not compliant with the legal framework for access to Higher Education,” said PS deputy Porfírio Silva to Lusa.
According to the PS deputy, “the country needs confidence in the institutions and in compliance with the rules for access to Higher Education,” and it is necessary to clarify this situation, which is why the PS urgently submitted this request.
Porfírio Silva wants António Sousa Pereira to explain “in person and with the necessary details everything that happened” in this case reported today by Expresso.
“We do not believe that the Ministry of Education’s statement clarifies the whole situation. We are not making any assumptions and therefore will not call anyone else before hearing from the person who made these statements,” he explained.
The socialist hopes that this request will be voted on in committee next Tuesday so that these clarifications can be obtained quickly.
The Minister of Education, Science and Innovation denied today having pressured the rector of the University of Porto to admit candidates to the Medicine course irregularly or suggested any solution that violated the current legal framework.
“The Minister of Education, Science and Innovation never pressured, in any way, the Rector to admit those candidates irregularly, nor suggested any solution that violated the current legal framework. Therefore, the accusation from the Rector of the University of Porto is false,” according to a statement released today by the Ministry.
The newspaper Expresso reports today that the rector of the University of Porto claimed to have received pressures from various “influential” people, without wanting to give names, to allow 30 candidates who had not achieved the minimum grade in the required exam to enter the Faculty of Medicine in the special access course for graduates from other areas.
The issue, writes Expresso, reached the Minister of Education, who called the rector to express willingness to create extraordinary vacancies so that these students (who had not achieved the minimum grade in the required exam in the special access course for graduates from other areas) could have a place in the Faculty of Medicine.
“The minister would have liked this to be done, but I told him: ‘I will not do it. I follow the law. If the minister understands that it should be otherwise, give me the order and I will execute it,'” the rector told Expresso.
