This chapter assesses the role of prior academic achievement and the admission system in influencing access to educational opportunities in higher education in Portugal. It considers the role of parental income and socio-economic status in influencing secondary education grades and study orientation. Special attention is given to general programme orientations and vocational programme orientations separately, given the considerable differences in the admissions routes open to these two groups. The chapter also provides suggestions for policy, drawing on international examples of good practice.
Higher Education in Portugal
Policies for Access and Success
Abstract
Prior academic achievement in terms of both secondary education grades and study orientation – general or vocational – are key enabling factors for students who want to pursue higher education. However, prior academic achievement varies systemically by socio-economic background in Portugal, as in other OECD countries. Less socio-economically advantaged students face greater barriers on average compared to more socio-economically advantaged students in achieving the necessary course requirements and entry grades to be admitted to higher education.
Inequalities in educational outcomes by socio-economic background tend to increase over the course of individuals’ lifetimes. Young people enter upper secondary education with different accumulated opportunities and levels of support that can be heavily influenced by their parents’ income and level of education. These, in turn, intersect with other sources of social disadvantage. While inequities in educational outcomes build over the course of childhood, this chapter will primarily focus on the disadvantage that emerges or is reinforced at the end of secondary education and in the transition to higher education.
To address the challenges of equity in access to, and success in, higher education, policy interventions are likely required across the lives of children and young people to address sources of disadvantage both when they first appear and when they later manifest themselves. This chapter recognises that inequalities in educational outcomes during primary and lower secondary education are important but focuses on barriers that appear and can be addressed specifically during the transition to higher education.
Much of this chapter is structured around the specific issues students face in the two main types of secondary education orientation. As seen in Chapter 2, transition rates to higher education are considerably higher for students in general secondary education programmes than among students in vocational secondary education programmes, and the key barriers differ across the two groups. Historically, only students from general programmes were expected to enter higher education, while students in vocational programmes were oriented directly to the labour market. This means that general secondary education programmes are tailored to prepare students for higher education and higher education admission systems are designed to optimise the matching of general upper secondary students with higher education programmes. However, it is increasingly recognised that many vocational students can benefit from further specialisation through post-secondary learning in order to thrive in a rapidly changing labour market.
The chapter begins by considering barriers to progression to higher education related to secondary education, first focusing on opportunities for students in general education and, second, on pathways for students in vocational secondary education programmes.
Key findings
The orientation of secondary education programmes – general versus vocational – is crucial in determining the academic opportunities young people have when leaving secondary education in Portugal. The admissions process for higher education is designed to be fair in its objective treatment of students from general education, and this works well if it is assumed that grades given in prior education accurately reflect academic preparedness.
However, in general programmes, lower-income students tend to receive lower grades than higher-income students, a pattern that reflects a multitude of factors. Among these, one factor appears to be the more limited amounts of privately provided extracurricular tutoring that lower-income students can access to prepare them for high-stakes exams, which disadvantages them in the assessments and exams. Another important factor that emerges is the divergence of internal grades awarded through assessment by subject teachers from grades awarded through externally marked national examinations. This divergence has been found to disproportionately benefit students from higher socio-economic backgrounds who thereby systemically receive higher entry grades for higher education than their less advantaged peers, given the same national exam grades.
Transition rates from secondary education to higher education are significantly lower for vocational students compared to general students in Portugal. This disproportionately affects lower-income students since they tend to be over-represented in vocational programmes.
The National Access Competition system is not well-designed for entrants from vocational study, and they have not been provided with straightforward alternative pathways into higher education. Compared to students in general secondary education orientations, vocational students in Portugal – like in many other countries – lack clear pathways, teaching support and instructions for course choice, requirements and application processes.
When vocational students do transition to higher education, they often enter via short-cycle programmes in polytechnic institutes. Many students from short-cycle programmes transition to a bachelor’s programme upon completion; this indicates that short-cycle programmes open up opportunities for further education for vocational students.
However, this pathway is more time-consuming and resource-intensive relative to a three-year bachelor’s degree. While institutions report that they allow students in some programmes to transfer credits from their short-cycle programme to a bachelor’s degree, it does not appear that students can progress directly to Year 2 in a bachelor’s degree yet.
Policy recommendations
1. Expand and formalise in-school exam-preparation study sessions for secondary education students in key subjects, for example, providing study space and peer mentors and/or teacher support.
2. Build on the existing preferential access schemes (priority quota) that acknowledge systemic differences in prior academic opportunities and achievement.
3. Strengthen alternative pathways to bachelor’s degrees via special competitions for holders of dual certification (vocational students) and holders of short-cycle programmes (CTeSPs).
Focusing on students in general programmes that have been prepared for the possibility of entering higher education, transition rates are already high in Portugal, with 76% of secondary education graduates in 2022/23 moving on to a higher education programme in 2023/24. There is some regional variation across the country, with transition rates at just 67% in Setúbal compared with 87% in Bragança, according to official figures (DGEEC, 2024[1]). According to bespoke data produced by the Portuguese Directorate-General for Statistics of Education and Science (Direção-Geral de Estatísticas da Educação e Ciência, DGEEC),1 transition rates for general secondary education graduates in 2022/23 are also 8 percentage points higher among students from higher-income backgrounds compared to those from lower-income backgrounds across Portugal (Chapter 2).
To understand the barriers to further widened participation, it is important to consider the role of prior achievement among secondary education students. A necessary condition for participating in higher education is attaining sufficiently high grades to enter a programme that students can practically attend. From an equity perspective, two issues emerge as particularly important in this respect in Portugal: an inflationary pressure on internal school grades and access to private tutoring classes to prepare for national exams, both of which are likely to contribute to widening the achievement gap between students from higher- and lower-income backgrounds.
3.2.1. Students whose parents have attained higher education are more likely to receive top grades than students whose parents have not
The general access route is the main higher education admission system for students in Portugal, and it is designed to optimise the match between demonstrated student ability, student preferences, and programme requirements. The general secondary education programmes are tailored to optimise students’ demonstrated ability by preparing students for the internal school assessments and external national exams required for access to the admission system. For the public higher education sector, the general access route occurs via the National Access Competition, whereas institutional competitions are held for candidates to private institutions. Institutional competitions are also held for short-cycle Professional Higher Technical Course (CTeSPs).
For the general access route, students’ entry grade points play a key role, so it is important that they accurately reflect performance. Allocation of students to available study places is automatic in the general access route and solely based on the student preference selection and their overall entry grade points. The entry grade points are determined by the secondary education leaving grade and specific external examination grades (Box 3.1).
Secondary education students in general study orientations in Portugal receive internal grades in each of their subjects based on the assessment of their subject teachers. Students also have to take (at least) three national exams. The national exam in Portuguese is mandatory. The others are elective and can be either the two-year subject that students in the general orientation have already elected within their curricula, or in other subjects eligible for national exams. The final school-leaving grades are determined as a weighted average of the grades from the internal assessments and the grades in the national exams.
The external national exams also function as entry exams to higher education for entry through the general access route (see Box 3.2). For entry to higher education via the general access route, the entry grade points are calculated using results from the national exams in specific subjects listed by institutions for each higher education programme. The higher education entry grade points used for ranking applicants and matching them to programmes in the general access route are determined by a weighted average of the final school-leaving grade, the grades in the specific external national exams needed for the programme, and the grade in any pre-requisites (see Box 3.2).
Source: DGES (2023[2]).
However, the school-leaving grades received in upper secondary education on average vary by socio-economic background in Portugal. Out of students with highly educated parents, 18% reported receiving top internal grades in the range 18-20 in 2020/21, compared to just 6% of students whose parents attained secondary education (Figure 3.1). Similarly, students in private secondary educations in Portugal tend to receive higher grades than those in the public system. Among students in private schools, 13% received a grade in the range 18-20 in 2020/21, whereas just 8% in public schools overall received top grades in this range (DGEEC, 2021[3]).
From an equity perspective, it is positive that the National Access Competition relies on an algorithm that automatically ranks and places students in programmes (see Box 3.2). Indeed, research shows that the degree of mismatch between student quality and programme ‘quality’, measured by the median entry grades of students who applied and among students enrolled, tends to be higher in countries where admissions are processed in universities and elements are evaluated by individuals and therefore based on subjective ratings (Murphy and Silva, 2024[4]). While students from lower socio-economic backgrounds still tend to undermatch in terms of programme quality across the entire achievement distribution (by attending less competitive programmes than their school grades would in theory allow) compared to students from higher socio-economic backgrounds in Portugal, this mismatch is mainly due to students’ own ranking of programmes (Murphy and Silva, 2024[4]).
Final secondary education grades from the internal assessments, by level of parental education, Portugal 2020/2021
Note: Grades are given on a scale from 0-20 and the minimum passing mark is 10.
Source: Estudantes à saída do Ensino Secundário em 2020/21, DGEEC.
Student grades depend on several interlinked factors, including – but not limited to – individual talent and commitment to studies, preparedness from previous studies, school and teacher quality, available materials, role models, ambition and parental support. While several factors – including preparedness, quality of school and parental support are influenced by students' socio-economic backgrounds, this chapter will focus on two factors: access to private tutoring and the Portuguese grading system in secondary education. These factors have been chosen since they appear relatively late in secondary education but can still greatly influence overall student grades, they vary systemically by student socio-economic status, and they are particularly relevant in the Portuguese secondary education system.
The National Access Competition is good for allocating students in the general access route
The National Access Competition is the main route for accessing undergraduate programmes in public universities and polytechnics in Portugal and is organised by the Directorate-General for Higher Education (DGES) at the end of each school year. It is open for secondary education graduates who apply to public institutions through the general access route, that is, students applying with secondary education grades and national exam grades in the subjects required by bachelor’s programmes.
Candidates can choose up to six programmes, in order of preference. The candidates are subsequently ranked based on their higher education entry score – their secondary education national exams and overall secondary education leaving grades. Students with the best overall score have the greatest chance of accessing their first choice of programme. Most of the study places are filled in the first admissions phase, but if students do not accept the option that they are offered, they can apply to the subsequent rounds of placement, although fewer study places are available at that time.
The national exams receive greater weight when calculating the higher education entry grade points from 2025/26
In July 2023, the Ministry announced that the weight of the national exams in specific subject in calculating the higher education entry score should be greater than previously. From the academic year 2025/26, national exams will be given a weight of 45%, or greater, and the weight of each of the two to three exams can range from 15% to 30%. This is a change from the previous rule where weight of national exams could vary between 35% and 50%. By comparison, the final school-leaving grade, will count for 40% to 55%, changing from the previous range of 50% to 65%.
The number of national exams requested for entry via the National Access Competition increases from 2025/26
In February 2023, the Ministry announced changes in the requirements for the number of national exams needed to enter the National Access Competition. Starting with the 2025/26 cohort, candidates need to submit two to three external national exam results in the application process, which is an increase from the previous requirement of one to three exam results. The institutions are responsible for deciding the number of exam results needed.
Part of grade differences likely stem from variations in access to private tutoring
Extracurricular tutoring can have an impact on student preparedness for assessments and exams, both through targeted revision in subject-specific topics and preparation for the format of exams. Portugal has a relatively low minimum number of hours of instruction time in the secondary education curriculum, which opens up the possibility of spending time in complementary private tutoring. Compared to other countries for which comparative data exist, Portugal is among the countries with the lowest average hours of intended instruction time per year in general secondary education. Portuguese students have on average 764 hours of intended instruction time per year, compared to 852 in the Netherlands and 1 656 in France (OECD, 2023[6]).
This relatively low average number of hours is due in part to a lower number of instructional hours in the final year of secondary education (year 12) in the general orientations, compared to the two years prior (years 10 and 11). During the two first years of general upper secondary education, students study two-year subjects examined through high-stakes national examinations (see Box 3.4). Fewer hours are allocated to the final year of secondary education (year 12), where the emphasis is instead placed on Portuguese and the three-year subjects that also involves high-stakes national examinations (Figure 3.2). While the curriculum includes one-year courses in the final year, the curricular time dedicated to these subjects tends to be lower, particularly since these courses are not examined in national exams.
Instead, the final year is seen as a way to broaden students’ perspectives via the low-stakes one-year courses. Alternatively, the final year can be seen as a second chance for students in general programmes to re-take the national exams in subjects that were not on the curriculum, or for which they would like a higher grade, as reported in stakeholder interviews held for the purpose of this project. The low instruction time, in combination with the possibility to re-take high-stakes exams in the final year of secondary education, provides opportunities for the investment in extracurricular tutoring.
‘Explanation’ (explicação) is a tutoring activity that is reportedly well known in Portuguese society and has existed for generations (CNE, 2024[7]). Tutoring can be sought by, and offered to, students who are struggling with their academic performance or who are at risk of dropping out of secondary education. As such, it can play a key role in a framework for inclusive education, which includes targeted support for students who need it. For instance, in-school tutorial support for students struggling with poor achievement (Apoio Tutorial Especifico and Apoio Educativo Tutorial) has been a key strategy to reduce drop-out rates in schools in Portugal since 2016/17, involving additional Portuguese and mathematics classes, training teachers and school leaders, and hiring extra teaching and student support staff (OECD, 2018[8]).
At the same time, private tutoring outside of school is offered to, and taken up by, students who aim to improve already high grades. Using data from 2018/19, DGEEC shows that 23% of students receiving tutoring were primarily motivated by wanting to improve on good grades, and 27% were primarily motivated by wanting to prepare for exams (DGEEC, 2021[9]). From an equity perspective, it is concerning if the education system incentivises students to invest in private tutoring outside schools, since this provides an advantage to students whose parents are able and willing to pay for extra classes. Data from Portugal illustrate that higher-income students are the most likely to receive tutoring support outside of their school (Figure 3.2). Figure 3.2 also shows that tutoring is primarily taken up by students in general secondary orientations.
Proportion of students receiving tutoring in and out of school, by School Social Action eligibility bracket, Portugal 2022/2023
Note: Results shown are unweighted. The survey data refers to 2023/24 and the student School Social Action bracket refers to student status in 2022/23.
Source: Estudantes à saída do Ensino Secundário em 2022/23, DGEEC.
There are international examples of free mentoring and tutoring initiatives that aim to reduce barriers caused by accumulated educational disadvantage among lower-income students from general secondary education programmes. Large-scale programmes include the Seren Academy in Wales and SaberEs in Colombia that both aim to prepare high-achieving secondary education students for the national higher education entry exams (Box 3.3). Some schools in Portugal have also started initiatives to support their students with extra support classes, although the focus so far has tended to be on supporting students at the risk of low achievement. For example, one representative from a secondary school participating in the project focus groups reports that their school provides study sessions and teacher tutoring using timetable credits and priority intervention educational territory (Territórios Educativos de Intervenção Prioritária, TEIP)2 credits.
There is an opportunity to build on these existing activities in schools by expanding and formalising in-school exam-preparation study sessions for secondary education students in key subjects, for example, providing study space and peer mentors and/or teacher support. It would be important to find ways to formalise activities and take into account teacher shortages to allow students across all schools to access these initiatives. To this end, options could be considered in consultation with schools through feasibility assessments. Teacher-led study help could also be complemented with student-led peer-tutoring initiatives either within secondary schools or with the support of higher education students acting as tutors, for example drawing on the peer-tutoring element in the Talens programme in France (Ly, Maurin and Riegert, 2020[10]) (Box 3.3). This offer could be delivered either in person or remotely online in order to manage logistical challenges and costs. Such initiatives could be delivered while monitoring quantity and quality indicators across schools to make sure that any gaps in provision are closed.
Such actions would support and build on the recommendation from the National Council for Education from 2024, which recommends that programmes, mechanisms and strategies to support learning in schools be created or strengthened, noting that these programmes can be flexible, and can consider integrating higher education students through partnerships with higher education institutions (CNE, 2024[7]).
The Tutoring and Career Counselling for High School Students (Talens) in France was a two-year tutoring programme implemented through a randomised controlled trial where volunteers from higher education institutions provided 14 tutoring sessions on Saturdays to year 11 students who had volunteered for tutoring after having been identified by high-school principals as having academic potential. The evaluation found that the intervention helped stronger students improve their results but was shown to be detrimental for students who had a weaker academic record prior to the programme, highlighting the need to pay careful attention to the design of peer counselling programmes (Ly, Maurin and Riegert, 2020[10]).
The Seren Academy in Wales is a government-funded programme to support secondary education students’ aspirations and ambitions by helping to widen their horizons, develop a passion for their chosen field of study and reach their academic potential. The Seren Academy is available to the most academically talented students from state schools and further education colleges who have been identified by their institution as meeting the eligibility criteria (Welsh Government[11]).
The “SaberEs Strategy” in the city of Medellín, Colombia, is a city-wide exam-preparation programme designed by the Medellín Education Department. It was first implemented between 2016-2019. In 2024, the Mayor's Office of Medellín relaunched the SaberEs strategy in the city's 219 official educational institutions, as part of the 2024-2027 Development Plan. SaberEs seeks to improve the quality of education by providing comprehensive extracurricular exam-preparation training to economically disadvantaged students ahead of the standardised test Saber 11, a mandatory secondary education leaving exam that is required for access to higher education and scholarships. An evaluation by Posso, Saravia and Uribe (2023[12]) finds that the intervention raises test score achievement and thereby reduces the gap in results between low and high-income students.
Part of grade differences likely arise from divergent internal grades for certain groups of students
Since the student-to-programme match in the general access route depends on students’ school-leaving grades, it is of key importance that these accurately reflect student preparedness. The final school-leaving grade that students receive in general orientations of secondary education is jointly determined by the scores in the national exams and the internal subject grades provided in schools. While national exams are externally marked, the grades provided by schools are given based on the assessment of subject teachers (see Box 3.4). The aim is that school grades complement national exam grades by accounting for academic and behavioural performance in school throughout the year.
However, research in Portugal has increasingly suggested that some schools systematically award higher grades in their internal assessments compared to the results achieved through the national exams (Nata, Pereira and Neves, 2014[13]; Baptista, Sin and Tavares, 2022[14]; Silva et al., 2025[15]). Baptista, Sin, and Tavares (2022[14]) find a systemic disparity between internal grades and national exam scores in a range between 0.5 and 0.8 points on the grade scale from 0 to 20. Typically, the highest internal grades occur in subjects not assessed through national exams. The systemic amplification of internal grades was made especially clear during the COVID-19 pandemic which provided a unique field experiment. The social distancing measures in place meant that students were exceptionally not required to take national exams, and these did not count towards the final school-leaving grades (MCTES, 2024[16]).
Divergent internal teacher assessment-based grades relative to external national exam grades are concerning from an equity perspective since these tend to negatively affect lower-income students disproportionately, because students from advantaged backgrounds tend to be given higher internal grades by teachers, relative to their demonstrated abilities in the national exams. Baptista, Sin and Tavares (2022[14]) find that when national exam scores are held constant, students receiving School Social Action support tend to be given lower internal grades than their non-recipient, higher-income peers (Baptista, Sin and Tavares, 2022[14]). Moreover, the practice of inflating internal grades relative to national exams tends to be more pronounced in private schools than in public schools (MCTES, 2024[16]). Research shows that teachers in private schools more rarely award lower internal grades than the national exams scores, as compared to teachers in public schools and Priority Intervention Educational Territories (TEIP) schools3 (Silva et al., 2025[15]).
If students from higher-income backgrounds are more likely than students from lower-income backgrounds to receive a higher internal grade than their academic skills would imply, lower-income students enter the National Access Competition with a lower chance of entering competitive programmes. The disadvantage is likely to be exacerbated in geographical places where there is fierce competition for study places. Indeed, Silva et al. (2025[15]) find a higher probability of grade inflation in northern districts where there is greater competition for study places (Silva et al., 2025[15]). Similarly, previous research has shown that private schools in Porto and Braga tend to attribute higher internal grades than most other schools to students with similar performance in the national exams (Baptista, Sin and Tavares, 2022[14]; Neves, Ferraz and Nata, 2017[17]; Nata, Pereira and Neves, 2014[13]).
To ease the pressures on study places in Porto and Lisbon, it was likely a well-intended idea to reverse the reweighting of numerus clausus in the 2018/19 academic year which reduced number of public study places allocated to Lisbon and Porto by 5%. Since students tend to opt to remain in their parental home, even if that involves forgoing higher education, the effect of the policy was mainly to increase the selectivity in institutions with high student demand, rather than to shift demand away from metropolitan regions as initially intended (Teixeira et al., 2022[18]).
It remains to be seen whether the reweighting of the value of national exams and school assessments will result in in reducing the impact of grade inflation in general education. The decision to increase the weight of the national exams relative to the internal grade should contribute to limiting the effect of inflated internal grades (Box 3.4). Simultaneously, the Ministry has moved to a three-test model for national exams (from exceptionally having no national exams during COVID-19, and from four national exams before COVID-19), which means that internal subject grades are again guided by results in the national exams (Box 3.4). This can help to better anchor the internal assessments to externally marked national exams, which contributes to limiting the mismatch between the two. If divergent internal grades continue to be a problem after the introduction of the three-test model, further policy action should be considered to better align internal assessments with demonstrated academic ability.
The national upper secondary exams in Portugal are externally graded in a double-blind manner, where students and teachers are unable to identify each other, and is therefore a more objective method of assessment than the internal grades provided directly by teachers who know the students. Imposing national exams can therefore help schools align the internal assessment to a directly comparable assessment in one more subject.
In 2023, the Ministry introduced a three-test model which increases the number of national exams that students in general study orientations must take to complete secondary education. This is a change from the exceptional arrangement implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic where national exam grades did not count towards the secondary education leaving grade.
This means that subject grades are now jointly determined by the external national exam grade and the internal teacher assessment-based grade or solely by the internal teacher assessment-based grade in cases where there is no external national exam grade. In 2023, the weight of national examinations in the final secondary education leaving grade were reduced to 25% from 30%. Correspondingly, the weight of internal assessments was set to 75%, up from 70%. These measures apply to students who started Year 10 in 2022/23.
Finally, the Ministry confirmed in 2023 that there would be a reweighting of each subject grade in determining the final secondary education leaving grade by introducing a “proportionality”. Each subject receives a weight corresponding to the number of years of the course, instead of giving each subject the same weight. This means that one-year courses – which are not subject to national examinations and therefore have tended to be exposed to inflated grades– will make up a smaller share of the final leaving grade. These changes apply to students who started Year 10 in 2023/24
Source: DGES (2023[2]); ePortugal (2023[19]); and AACRAO (2023[20]).
3.2.2. Preferential access policies in higher education institutions can help mitigate the effects of inequities in prior achievement on educational opportunities
While much of the disadvantage faced by lower-income students in achieving sufficiently high results in prior achievements needs to be addressed where it occurs, as discussed in the previous section, the higher education sector can help mitigate the effect of this disadvantage on educational outcomes at the point of admission processes. As the higher education sector is responsible for setting the detailed criteria for entry to higher education programmes, it can play a valuable role in ensuring students’ academic preparedness while also promoting widened access through preferential access policies targeting historically under-represented groups.
Preferential access policies in higher education acknowledge that part of the gap in prior achievement between disadvantaged and advantaged groups stem from inequalities in the opportunity to develop academic skills rather than from underlying differences in academic ability. As such, they aim to narrow the gap in the opportunity to access higher education programmes between disadvantaged and advantaged groups. Through stakeholder interviews conducted for this project in Portugal, it is understood that the main objective among institutions with highly competitive programmes is to attract and select the most promising students into their programmes. Where preferential access policies are designed to even the playing field between applicants by considering academic potential rather than simply academic preparedness, they can help selective institutions improve the effectiveness of the selection process in identifying the applicants with the best chances of success.
In 2022/23, the Ministry made a conscious attempt to promote widened access to the most selective programmes in Portugal by implementing a 2% priority quota targeting lower-income students. The priority quota reserves 2% of study places (or two places, whichever is higher) in higher education programmes for candidates receiving School Social Action eligibility bracket A. Candidates who apply via the priority quota are ranked within the quota in descending order of their application grades, until it is filled. If the proportion of candidates in eligibility bracket A is greater than 2%, the remaining candidates are transferred to the general quota and ranked with the remaining candidates. A recent evaluation of the policy indicates that while take-up was lower than expected (only 43% of eligible students used the quota), 41% of students who were admitted via the priority quota benefited from a reduced grade offer (Silva, Morin and Cardoso, 2024[21]).
However, if take-up increases as planned, it is conceivable that the small size of the quota will mean that the effect will be limited in future. Only 86 out of the 1 119 programmes that opened study places in the first phase of admissions through the National Access Competition in 2023 had fewer than 2% of places or less than two places allocated to students from ASE eligibility bracket A on average between 2017/18 and 2022/23. In most cases where the quota would be active, it would be because the programmes are small, making the limit of 2 places allocated more relevant than 2% of places, according to bespoke tables produced by DGEEC.4
Considering the most selective “programmes of excellence”, defined as those where students need entry grades of 17 or higher to be accepted in the first phase of admissions, only 8 programmes allocated on average either under 2% of places or under two places to candidates in eligibility bracket A between 2017/18 to 2022/23. Out of all the programmes with less than 2% or two places allocated to candidates in eligibility bracket A, the majority (72%) were in programmes where the grade of the last-placed student in the first phase of the National Access Competition was below 15, indicating that the programme is less competitive, according to bespoke tables and data on the admissions grades produced by DGEEC (2023[22]). As such, these programmes would not be the primary target for a quota aiming to widen access to the most competitive programmes in the country.
To build on the existing preferential access scheme (priority quotas) that acknowledges systematic differences in prior academic opportunities and achievement, the Ministry could commission an evaluation of student success among groups benefiting from the priority quota and other access schemes, such as special regimes, including for national scholarship holders from Portuguese-speaking African countries, and special contingencies, including candidates from the Autonomous Regions of the Azores and Madeira. In addition, an evaluation could consider the adequacy of the size of the priority quota and other access schemes relative to their respective target populations in secondary education. The findings from such reviews can subsequently be used to inform decisions about targeted student support and whether it is desirable to expand the size of the priority quota.
As an alternative, Portugal could consider offering admission at a given grade discount relative to the grade of the last-placed student not using the quota. For such a model, inspiration could be drawn from Ireland. The preferential access scheme “HEAR” defines a reduced number of grade points that students from target groups require in order to receive an offer of admission (Box 3.5).
A long track-record of institutional practice has evolved into the national, “Higher Education Access Scheme” (HEAR) in Ireland, where institutions reserve a number of study places for socio-economically disadvantaged entrants. Applicants who apply via HEAR can receive a “reduced-points offer”, where their final entry grades are lower than what would be strictly necessary if competing with other applicants in the standard access route. On arrival at the institution, HEAR entrants are then provided with wrap-around academic, personal, and social supports once they start their studies. An evaluation from 2013 using administrative data found that HEAR-eligible applicants are more likely than their peers to make the transition to higher education and found no evidence that HEAR-eligible entrants were any more likely than their peers to drop out between the first and the second year of their higher education programme (Byrne et al., 2013[23]).
Key finding:
Accumulated educational disadvantage among lower-income students from general secondary education programme orientations relative to those from higher-income backgrounds, raise barriers to widening access higher education and achieving a good student-to-programme match.
Recommendations:
1. Expand and formalise in-school exam-preparation study sessions for secondary education students in key subjects, for example, providing study space and peer mentors and/or teacher support.
2. Build on the existing preferential access schemes (priority quota) that acknowledge systemic differences in prior academic opportunities and achievement.
In Portugal, as in other OECD member countries, transition rates from secondary education to higher education are considerably lower for students in vocational orientations than for students in general orientations. To some extent, this is because the objectives for vocational and general programmes differ: general programmes are designed to prepare students for higher education, whereas vocational programmes aim to prepare students for direct entry into the labour market. While it is beyond the scope of this project to thoroughly review the process of selection into secondary education study orientations, it is reasonable to assume that not all students are ideally placed in vocational tracks and previous research finds that it is essential to ensure that there are no “dead ends” in an education system (Stronati, 2023[24]).
There should be a keen national interest to ensure that there are possibilities for students to change their educational pathway towards the end of secondary education. From an equity perspective, it is concerning that lower-income students are over-represented in vocational programmes, particularly if some young people from lower-income backgrounds enter vocational programmes because they perceive this to be the best way to start contributing quickly to family incomes, as highlighted by project stakeholder interviews and focus groups. From an economic productivity perspective, it is recognised that some vocational students – like other learners – could benefit from some form of higher education to thrive in a rapidly changing labour market (Jobs and Skills Australia, 2025[25]), including mature students engaging in upskilling and reskilling. It is therefore essential that students from vocational programmes are offered viable opportunities to continue their studies to specialise or broaden their skills.
3.3.1. Students from lower socio-economic backgrounds are over-represented in vocational secondary education programmes
Transition rates of students from vocational secondary education orientations lag far behind those of students from general orientations, and lower-income students in vocational programmes experience greater barriers. While 76% of those graduating from a general programme in 2022/23 across Portugal transitioned into degree-conferring higher education or short-cycle programmes in the year immediately following their graduation, this figure was just 22% for students in vocational programmes (DGEEC, 2024[1]). Among students from vocational orientations graduating in 2022/23, lower-income students are also 3 percentage points less likely than higher-income students to move on to higher education across Portugal, according to bespoke data from DGEEC (Chapter 2).5
Students from families with lower economic status are disproportionately affected by the barriers to accessing higher education experienced by vocational students since they are more likely to attend vocational secondary education programmes compared with students from higher socio-economic backgrounds. A majority (54%) of students whose parents have completed lower secondary education or below (corresponding to ISCED level 1 or 2) attend vocational courses, compared to 37% of students whose parents have an upper secondary qualification (ISCED level 3). Only a minority (17%) of students whose parents attained higher education attend vocational secondary education programmes (Figure 3.3).
Proportion of students in the two main secondary education study orientations, by level of parental education, Portugal 2020/2021
Source: DGEEC, Estudantes à saída do Ensino Secundário em 2020/21.
Although vocational tracks were historically designed to permit direct labour market entry, findings from focus groups undertaken within the scope of the project highlight that not all students in vocational orientations are interested in pursuing a career in their field of study. Focus group participants report that there are at least two types of student profiles within the vocational student population. First, those who wish to enter the professional areas directly related to their chosen courses. Second, students whose primary objective is to quickly earn an income. Upon leaving secondary education, this second group tends to seek jobs that do not necessarily correspond with their vocational course. Instead, they may seek general, often low-skilled routine jobs or work in a family business.
It is potentially problematic for young people, the education system and the economy at large if some young people from lower-income backgrounds participate in vocational secondary education programmes, not because they are interested in pursuing the vocational path in question, but simply because they perceive this to be the best way to quickly start contributing to family income. This suggests that some young people from low-income backgrounds may forgo the opportunity to use and build on skills gained from their secondary education programmes to leverage higher lifetime earnings – either directly in the labour market or in further specialisations – for the short-term necessity of contributing to the family income. The risk is that some talented lower-income students fail to achieve their potential by selecting programmes ill-suited to their talents and interests and that limit their future opportunities in education as well as in the labour market. Beyond generating sub-optimal individual outcomes, this phenomenon would also reduce the efficiency of skills matching in the economy and inhibit productivity growth.
Far from all students in vocational secondary education programmes want or need to apply to higher education. These programmes have been especially designed to teach their graduates the skills required to enter the labour market directly after school. The ability to find work related to the field of study quickly can be a key motivating factor in choosing a vocational programme. At the same time, some students may find that they want to specialise further in their field, or broaden their academic abilities, and these students should be given a fair opportunity to enter higher education.
Vocational programmes are not designed to be compatible with the requirements to enter the National Access Competition
The first option that vocational students who wish to enter higher education have is via the National Access Competition, but vocational programmes will typically not include classes in subject areas that prepare students for the national exams required by the National Access Competition. Since their curriculum will not prepare them for the national exams, vocational students who want to take national exams need to organise their own learning in the subjects required by their desired higher education programme (MCTES, 2024[16]). Students then need to study for these exams in their own time or receive special tutoring through their school or through extracurricular services. While not being guaranteed instruction in classes that prepare students for national exams, some schools reportedly offer some form of informal or formal guidance for students who want to go through this route.
Beyond not receiving formal teaching on the relevant course content, the barriers to study for national exams are raised by vocational students’ relatively long schedules throughout upper secondary education. While students in general tracks enjoy a more sparsely populated schedule in the final year of upper secondary education which can allow them to improve their national exam grades or prepare for exams in subjects that they did not previously study, vocational students follow a curriculum where scheduled hours remain high in the final year of studies in order to continue furthering their skillset.
The recent changes in the requirements for the number of national exams needed to enter the National Access Competition have raised the barriers for vocational students to enter. Starting with the 2025/26 cohort, candidates need to submit two to three subject exam results in the application process, which is an increase from the previous requirement of one to three exam results (DGES, 2023[2]) (Box 3.2). With the aim of at least holding the share of vocational students who enter higher education constant in the face of this change, and aiming to increase it in the long term, the Ministry could strengthen the two alternative pathways available to vocational students: the special competitions for holders of vocational secondary qualifications (dual certification) and the short-cycle CTeSPs.
3.3.2. Special competitions and short-cycle programmes can help provide reliable pathways to higher education
Special competitions for vocational students are institution-based and voluntary
The second option to enter higher education for students in vocational upper secondary tracks is via special competitions held for study places in specific programmes (DGES, 2024[26]). Different special competitions cater specifically to various groups of candidates include – among others – special competitions for holders of dual certification diplomas (vocational) and special competitions for short-cycle CTeSPs (DGES, 2024[26]). Institutions can open study places through special competitions alongside study places opened through the general access route.
However, while some special competitions are mandatory for institutions, the special competitions for holders of dual certification are voluntary and only a few study places are open for these applicants (MCTES, 2024[16]). For instance, the publication of available study places in 2025 for the academic year 2025/26 specified that 55 956 study places were to be opened in the general access regime in the public sector, with the addition of 20 862 study places in special competitions and special regimes. Out of all study places in public institutions, only 1.5% were allocated to the special competition for students with dual certification (i.e. vocational students). In the private sector, 18 831 study places were offered through the general access regime, with an additional 6 149 offered through special competitions and special regimes. Out of all the study places offered, 3.4% were opened through the special competition for students with dual certification (DGES, 2025[27]).
Study places offered through special competitions have historically been less straightforward for institutions to offer since institutions need to organise the selection process and more complicated for students to apply to since they had to take a test at each institution, compared with study places offered through the general access route. However, efforts are being made to streamline the system. First, it is positive that students can now access a central applications system for all public institutions on a single online platform, managed by DGES, rather than applying locally to each institution (DGES, 2025[28]). Second, it is good that institutions are slightly mitigating the challenge of designing, organising and assessing entry exams that candidates take instead of the national exams by joining the exam calendars of their larger group of co-ordinating institutions, called consortia, where institutions are organised by geography, with consortia in the north, centre, and south, including islands. This means that students’ entrance exam results are valid for study places within the consortia. Only three institutions still offer entry exams outside of their consortia (DGES, 2025[28]).
Another element where there is possibility for further development is in the publication of previous years’ entry exams. Contrary to students preparing for the national exams, students applying through the special competitions typically do not have access to previous years’ exams to help in their preparation. It is therefore promising that the University of Algarve has reportedly started correcting for this imbalance by publishing old versions of their entry exams in order to prepare students for the type of exercises that they will be asked to do. It would also be positive if these simplifications encouraged institutions to allocate more study places to special competitions for holders of dual certification, in co-ordination with the ministry in change of higher education (Diário da República, 2025[29]).
Two-year professional courses are a promising tool to widen opportunities to develop specialised skills through higher education
The final option for vocational students to access higher education is through short-cycle programmes, CTeSPs. Since their introduction in 2014, CTeSPs have been offered in increasing number by polytechnic institutes and, according to project focus group participants, have had a positive impact on the accessibility to higher education for students from low-income backgrounds. These programmes are more accessible than traditional bachelor’s programmes since the entry requirements in terms of academic grades are lower. Project interviews indicate that application processes are also perceived as more straightforward than the National Access Competition. This holds true in observed transition patterns too. Of students who had completed a vocational secondary education programme, around half of those who transitioned into higher education immediately following their secondary education graduation entered via a CTeSP (Figure 3.4).
Situation one year after leaving vocational secondary education, by district, 2023/24
Note: Districts are ranked in descending order of total transition rates (degree-conferring higher education and short-cycle education). Data excludes island regions.
Source: DGEEC (2024[1]), Table 13, Transição entre o ensino secundário e o ensino superior 2022/2023 -> 2023/2024.
Participants in project focus groups report that many students appreciate that CTeSPs are tailored to the local labour market and the opportunity to immediately learn a profession, since this can facilitate a swift entry into the labour market on graduation. Project focus group participants report that this optionality helps create a sense of security, allowing students to keep both vocational and academic paths open; CTeSPs allow students to choose whether to pursue further studies or start working in a profession. This holds up in outcomes observed in the data: 45% of CTeSP graduates went on to study for a bachelor’s degree in 2021/22, with a great majority staying within the same polytechnic institute (Figure 3.5).
During interviews with stakeholders held for this project, institutions report that they allow students in some programmes to transfer credits from their CTeSP to a bachelor’s degrees. However, stakeholders also report that this merely tends to make the bachelor’s degree less intensive, since certain credits are transferable (depending on the programme and institution). The project team did not hear of a situation where CTeSP students were able to move directly on to the second year in a bachelor’s programme.
During interviews conducted for this project, stakeholders in institutions that provide CTeSPs reported that the comparably short duration of two years lowers barriers for students who would not have considered studying for a bachelor’s degree level due to the time commitment it requires. Stakeholders report that once students start on CTeSPs, they tend to gain confidence and insight into what it means to pursue higher education, which in turn inspires many to continue to a degree-conferring programme.
Proportion of CTeSP graduates in 2021/22 who transition to a bachelor's programme or a different higher education level programme in 2022/23, by institution
Note: In the figure, U refers to “Universidade” or “University” and IP refers to “Instituto Politécnico” or Polytechnic Institute”. Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Escola Superior Náutica Infante D. Henrique, and Universidade dos Açores are excluded due to small sample sizes.
Source: DGEEC (2024[30]), Prosseguimento de estudos entre os diplomados em Cursos Técnicos Superiores Profissionais, 2017/18 a 2021/22.
Internationally, foundation and bridging courses have been used as one approach to offering a viable path for vocational students and students with lower secondary education leaving grades while keeping in place the original features of the educational system. For example, the FEE-FREE Uni Ready and other enabling courses in Australia aim to close key gaps in subject-specific knowledge and study skills that are necessary to successfully complete a higher education programme (Box 3.6).
Some institutions in Portugal have implemented similar foundation years – or year 0 courses – that aim to close gaps in academic preparedness. Currently, these courses tend to target international students who arrive in Portugal with the need to improve their skills in Portuguese as well as in other subjects. However, Year 0 courses in Portugal tend to be associated with relatively high tuition fees, they do not confer any credits, and they do not guarantee entry to a higher education programme on completion.
By comparison, the role of foundation courses might be better played by CTeSPs in Portugal. Contrary to Year 0 alternatives, CTeSPs are resourced by government funding, provide eligibility to student financial support, confer credits as a stand-alone programme and are well integrated in the current education system. It is possible that some CTeSPs are well suited to prepare students for continued education while others primarily prepare students for the local labour market. It would be useful to review the design and use of programmes to better understand if CTeSPs could fulfil the dual purpose of functioning as possible foundation courses for further study in the same field, as well as a direct route to labour market entry.
While short-cycle programmes are promising as a tool for widening access and completion in higher education and have lowered barriers to entry for vocational students in particular, some information barriers remain. Candidates who want to apply to CTeSPs have lacked centralised information accessible in one place about the available courses, their individual requirements and the separate admission processes. This has been inherent in the process, since CTeSPs are separate from the general access route – which is part of their appeal – and criteria for admission, assessments and evaluations, and final admission are organised by institutions (DGES, 2024[31]).
It is positive that application guides – similar to those traditionally sent to students in general secondary education programmes – have been made available to students in vocational orientations as promised by MCTES in 2023 (DGES, 2023[2]). However, these guides still lack CTeSPs as well as further educational opportunities and labour market prospects associated with each option. There is therefore scope to further strengthen alternative pathways to bachelor’s degrees via special competitions for holders of dual certification (vocational students) and holders of short-cycle CTeSPs.
Beyond acting as a short-cycle qualification with direct labour market relevance in its own right, CTeSPs also seem to act as an entry point to a bachelor’s programme since a considerable share of CTeSP graduates transition into a bachelor’s programme upon completion of their programme. Although this was not the intention of CTeSPs, it is an interesting development.
It would be useful to conduct a review of the current design, use and adequacy of current CTeSPs to fulfil the dual purpose of providing a short-cycle course and an entry route to higher levels of study. It would be important to understand its potential as a developed integrated pathway, recognising that not all CTeSPs may be suitably integrated with bachelor’s programmes and always keeping the option to graduate from the independent two-year CTeSP programme.
If deemed appropriate given the findings from a review of the CTeSPs, the Ministry could build on the existing credit recognition between CTeSP-level courses and bachelor-level courses, by considering integrated pathways in cases where there is already significant overlap between a CTeSP and the first-year courses for a bachelor’s degree. For example, Ireland has been piloting linked pathways between short-cycle programmes and bachelor’s degrees, through “Tertiary Degrees”. Portugal might draw lessons from these pilots in Ireland to experiment with well-integrated CTeSP-bachelor programme route, considering the possibility of completing the combined CTeSP-bachelor programme in four years rather than five (Box 3.6).
Universities receive central funding to deliver FEE-FREE Uni Ready courses in Australia which provide nationally regulated foundation programmes to students in need of extra preparation. A large majority of students in FEE-FREE Uni Ready courses (88%) access these courses free of charge through a Commonwealth-supported study place (Australian Department of Education, 2024[32]). Universities receive a contribution through the Commonwealth Grant Scheme at a higher rate than other courses to account for non-payable student contribution.
A good example of a specific FEE-FREE Uni Ready course is the Open Foundation programme at University of Newcastle, Australia, which delivers free and open-access courses that combine teaching in key subject matter and foundational concepts and skills for study. The courses are designed by “enabling teams” in collaboration with teaching staff in the associated faculty. In addition, students receive wrap-around support from enabling teams who assist students in dealing with a range of challenges that they experience and connect students with the other types of support they need. Established in 1974, the Open Foundation programme has supported over 70 000 students through a university education and nearly one-in-five students who graduated from the University of Newcastle in the past 10 years entered via the programme (Australian Department of Education, 2024[32]).
Ireland has been piloting “Tertiary Degrees”, as part of an effort to re-design the system of programmes, credentials and transitions between post-secondary further education and higher education. Tertiary Degrees are co-ordinated by the National Tertiary Office and developed by the Education and Training Boards responsible for vocational education and training, together with higher education institutions.
Key finding:
Students from vocational secondary education programmes who want to transition to higher education experience higher barriers to entry than students from general programme orientations, raising barriers to widening access to higher education.
Recommendation
3. Strengthen alternative pathways to bachelor’s degrees via special competitions for holders of dual certification (vocational students) and holders of short-cycle diplomas (CTeSPs).
References
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← 1. These bespoke data were provided by special request to DGEEC and are not directly comparable with published tables. The bespoke tables use the datasets Education Statistics (EE) from 2022/2023, Survey on the Registration of Enrolled and Graduated Higher Education Students (RAIDES) from 2023/2024 (students enrolling in the first year for the first time). This is different from the official statistics from DGEEC. In the bespoke tables from DGEEC, students are considered to be in a) general study orientation if they take part in scientific-humanistic courses; b) vocational study orientation if they take part in courses of double certification (including technological courses, vocational courses (cursos profissionais), learning courses (cursos de aprendizagem), specialised artistic courses (cursos artísticos especializados); and c) in other study orientations if they take part in courses targeted to adults. Students in recurrent education (ensino recorrente) are excluded. This is different from the official statistics from DGEEC, where students are considered to be in a) vocational programmes only if they take part in vocational courses (cursos profissionais); and b) in other study orientations if they take part in courses with specific plans (cursos com Planos Próprios); and specialised artistic courses (cursos artísticos especializados).
← 2. The priority intervention educational territory programme is an educational policy measure aimed at schools located in geographical areas with a high number of children and young people at risk of social vulnerability. It aims to promote inclusion and educational success, improve the quality of learning and combat school dropout.
← 3. TEIP schools were established to promote educational access and success, social equity goals, and economic growth. No significant differences are found between public schools and TEIP schools in this study (Silva et al., 2025[15]).
← 4. The bespoke tables from DGEEC are not directly comparable with the official data from DGEEC. The bespoke tables use the datasets Education Statistics (EE) from 2021/2022, the Secondary Education National Exams database (ENES) from 2022, Survey on the Registration of Enrolled and Graduated Higher Education Students (RAIDES) from 2022/2023 (students enrolling in the first year for the first time). In the bespoke tables from DGEEC, students are considered to be in a) general study orientation if they take part in scientific-humanistic courses; b) vocational study orientation if they take part in courses of double certification (including technological courses, vocational courses (cursos profissionais), learning courses (cursos de aprendizagem), specialised artistic courses (cursos artísticos especializados); and c) in other study orientations if they take part in courses targeted to adults. Students in recurrent education (ensino recorrente) are excluded. This is different from the official statistics from DGEEC, where students are considered to be in a) vocational programmes only if they take part in vocational courses (cursos profissionais); and b) in other study orientations if they take part in courses with specific plans (cursos com planos próprios); and specialised artistic courses (cursos artísticos especializados).
← 5. These bespoke data were provided by special request to DGEEC and are not directly comparable with published tables. The bespoke tables use the datasets Education Statistics (EE) from 2022/2023 and Survey on the Registration of Enrolled and Graduated Higher Education Students (RAIDES) from 2023/2024 (students enrolling in the first year for the first time). This is different from the official statistics from DGEEC. In the bespoke tables from DGEEC, students are considered to be in a) general study orientation if they take part in scientific-humanistic courses; b) vocational study orientation if they take part in courses of double certification (including technological courses, vocational courses (cursos profissionais), learning courses (cursos de aprendizagem), specialised artistic courses (cursos artísticos especializados); and c) in other study orientations if they take part in courses targeted to adults. Students in recurrent education (ensino recorrente) are excluded. This is different from the official statistics from DGEEC, where students are considered to be in a) vocational programmes only if they take part in vocational courses (cursos profissionais); and b) in other study orientations if they take part in courses with specific plans (cursos com planos próprios); and specialised artistic courses (cursos artísticos especializados).