The university confirmed that the decisions made in that year did not disadvantage any applicants to the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto in the National Access Competition.
Without directly mentioning Altamiro Costa Pereira, director of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto (FMUP), who stated in an interview on Friday that 2019 saw Rector António Sousa Pereira approve the faculty’s results allowing “37 students, all [with grades] below 14” to be enrolled, the rectorate clarifies the situation.
The rectorate highlights the information “was determined based on a search of official records of the University of Porto, pertaining to the Special Examination Process for Graduates of the Faculty of Medicine in the year 2019,” noting that the competition “occurred under very particular circumstances.”
The regulation underpinning the process was published in the Diário da República on July 9, 2019, the same day the selection process timetable was disclosed, specifying a candidacy period from July 12 to 16,” the note states, recalling that “80 applicants came forward, of whom 50 were pre-selected to undertake the Knowledge Test, which was applied for the first time at FMUP,” and “none of the present candidates scored 14 or above.”
The process prompted “multiple complaints regarding evaluation criteria and question correction,” leading the Selection Committee to nullify the assessment of 34 of the 100 questions, which led to “further complaints from candidates,” prompting the same committee to award “maximum marks to all on the 34 contested questions.” Yet, “still, no candidate achieved a score of 14 or above,” the statement continues.
Consequently, the “director of FMUP requested the annulment of prior actions, altering the selection to be governed by the candidate list ordered by the total evaluation of the selection process, where the top 37 were selected to fill available slots,” a “final list which the rector received and approved exceptionally, given the specific context of difficulties FMUP faced in conducting and evaluating the exam,” the rectorate notes.
According to the rectorate, five factors differentiate the 2019 process from that in 2025: It was the first year the Knowledge Test was applied in FMUP’s selection process, occurring in an unusually brief timeframe, and the difficulty exhibited by the Selection Committee in conducting and evaluating the test, specifically in assessing the 34 disputed questions, rendered its application in the overall assessment of candidates procedurally untenable.
All candidates were on equal footing as none achieved a score of 14 or above, any vacancies from this competition could not be utilized by other candidates, whereas in 2025, leftover vacancies reverted by law to the National Access Competition, allowing 30 more young students to join FMUP’s Medicine course, the rectorate continues.
Finally, in 2019 there were no precedents of candidates being excluded from this competition for not achieving a score of 14 or above, so there was no question of procedural inequity between candidates from prior years, a situation which would have occurred in 2025 if the initial competition results were ratified.
The rectorate concludes by reminding that after the list of 37 admitted students was made public in 2019, an excluded candidate filed a legal action in the Porto Administrative and Fiscal Court, which supported the University of Porto’s final decision, acknowledging it preserved equity among candidates in a process with the administrative vicissitudes described above.
