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OECD countries have commended Portugal for progress made towards modernising its tertiary education system. Over the past three years, the Portuguese government has implemented reforms to encourage institutions to be more responsive to the needs of society and the economy. These give institutions more autonomy and room for manoeuvre but require them, in return, to be more clearly accountable to society.
A detailed report on Portugal’s reforms was provided to the OECD’s Education Policy Committee by Portugal’s Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education José Mariano Gago, as a follow-up to the OECD Review of Tertiary Education in Portugal published in late 2006.
Responding, OECD Deputy Secretary-General Aart de Geus said OECD applauds the scope and the wide-ranging nature of the reform, and the speed with which it has been introduced. “OECD is pleased it could contribute, through its Review of Tertiary Education in Portugal, to the reform process in Portuguese tertiary education.” he said. Action has been taken in almost all areas of the Review’s recommendations. “Portugal’s success with these reforms will help other countries understand better how to tackle the challenges of policy implementation, thereby helping OECD to become more effective”.
The following developments are particularly significant and promise to bring ample benefits:
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A new legislative framework which facilitates the outward focus of institutions. Portugal approved new legislation allowing public universities, on a voluntary basis, to acquire independent legal status in the form of public foundations governed by private law. The new environment facilitates stronger educational links to employers, regions and labour markets; more effective university-industry links for research and innovation; and participation of external stakeholders in system and institutional governance. It is now up to institutions to adapt to the new opportunities they have.
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Strengthened system diversity, with the emphasis on the expansion of the polytechnic sector. Recent reforms in Portugal seek to promote the binary system with expansion concentrated on professionally-oriented degrees in polytechnics. This further diversification is likely to provide a wider capacity to address varied national needs – in terms of research and innovation, the development of a skilled workforce, social inclusion and regional development.
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A new framework for quality assurance with the creation of a new agency for quality assurance in tertiary education. The reform provides the framework for the mandatory external and independent evaluation of institutions and serves as the basis for the accreditation process of the institutions and their programmes. The future operation of the quality assurance agency will aim at placing Portugal among the countries with best practices in quality assurance.
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Launch of a scheme of publicly-guaranteed loans through commercial banks with innovative features. This is an important step to expand participation in tertiary education as the student support system is strengthened in a system in which the principle of cost-sharing has been introduced.
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Large-scale international partnerships between consortia of Portuguese institutions and leading world tertiary education and research institutions. These partnerships have good potential for promoting science and technology and for building research capacity.
Overall, the reform provides a sound basis to improve the ability of Portuguese tertiary education to raise higher-level employment skills, to sustain a globally competitive research base and to improve knowledge dissemination to the benefit of society. OECD hopes the reform will be embraced by stakeholders in the system so its full benefits are realised. These are important developments for achieving Portugal’s economic and social objectives.
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