The intervention model of this association includes academic and psychosocial support, mentorship in partnership with over 30 companies, and employability promotion, accompanying young people throughout their academic journey and the first year after completing higher education, aiming for integration into the labor market.
The high cost of housing in various cities and the lack of support “are factors contributing to an increasing detachment of young people from higher education, leading them to a premature—and more precarious—entry into the labor market,” says Mafalda Teixeira Bastos, co-founder & general coordinator of Stand4Good.
“It is urgent to respond to these young people who, despite academic merit and immense motivation to continue studying, cannot cope with the high costs of accessing higher education, often being forced to give up,” emphasized the official.
Thus, the responsible individual argues, “for education to effectively fulfill its role as a social elevator, it is essential that we, as a society, mobilize to ensure that all young people have access to the same educational opportunities, regardless of where they were born or the economic situation they live in.”
“The challenge is increasingly evident,” the statement underscores, highlighting numbers from the previous academic year.
In 2024, the number of applications for social action scholarships in higher education “reached a historic record of 108,000 applications. However, thousands of students continue to be excluded due to strict administrative criteria.”
“In the 2024/25 academic year, the University of Porto alone received 7,789 scholarship applications, with 648 students having their application rejected due to excess per capita income. Of these, 112 lost the scholarship for less than 500Euro/year, considering the maximum threshold defined by the Directorate-General for Higher Education (DGES) for that year (11,712.98Euro),” notes Mafalda Bastos.
The most evident case followed by Stand4Good is that of a student whose scholarship application was rejected “due to a difference of just 0.03Euro per capita.”
Since its inception in 2020, Stand4Good has supported a total of 89 students in economic need, awarding over 170 university scholarships over the past five years, whether full scholarships for tuition payment and educational expenses (in the case of students excluded from DGES social action scholarships), or partial scholarships for educational expenses (for students benefiting from the minimum DGES scholarship). In total, the association has invested over 100,000 euros in scholarships, counting on support from various partners.
In addition to academic and psychosocial support for each student, Stand4Good’s model also includes a Skills Development Program, a Mentorship Program in partnership with over 30 companies, an Employability Program, an Inspirational Talks Program featuring leading figures, and a Volunteering Program.
In partnership with the University of Porto, supported students are spread across 13 faculties in 14 areas of study, ranging from engineering and health sciences to social sciences, arts, and humanities.
In 2024/25, 56 young people from various regions of the country were supported, 21 of them displaced, 14 who travel more than three hours a day to study, and the remaining 21 from Porto and surroundings.
“And the results speak for themselves,” highlights Mafalda Bastos, noting that in the past five years, the retention rate of these students in higher education has been over 95%, countering statistics related to dropout rates at this level of education, with an academic success rate of 90%.
