The challenges of Higher Education

Portuguese Higher Education currently faces two central and urgent challenges: ensuring equal opportunities in access and attendance, as well as implementing a serious, ambitious and balanced reform of the Legal Framework for Higher Education Institutions (RJIES). No plan for the future will be credible if it ignores these two fronts. We need political courage, strategic vision and, above all, commitment to students and the country.

Equal opportunities cannot be an empty slogan. Although there is much talk about zero tuition fees, it is important to remember that the cost of ending tuition fees would exceed 300 million euros per year — the equivalent, for example, of building around 9,000 beds in student residences, at a time when lack of accommodation is the main obstacle to attending higher education. The priority should be clear between exempting those who can afford to pay tuition fees and ensuring affordable housing for those who need it most. However, wanting to increase tuition fees, in real terms, is deeply ideological and dogmatic. Higher education does not only benefit the individual, but also creates positive externalities in the economy and promotes the economic growth that the country so badly needs. Raising tuition fees, in addition to being a movement that goes against the best public policy practices in Europe, is a bad sign on the part of the State.

Today, only 10% of children from families with fewer resources are able to access higher education. However, national funding for granting social action grants in higher education has not exceeded 70 million euros per year and the grants continue to be calculated based on a reference value that is around 1,350 euros below the poverty line defined by the INE. It is therefore important to support those who need it in accordance with their actual needs, that is, to treat differently what is different, supporting those who need it because they have more socioeconomic limitations due to the context in which they were born and raised. That is what social justice is.

Even so, the uncritical reimbursement of tuition fees as a wage bonus remains, a poorly designed and regressive measure that is ineffective in curbing skilled emigration, but could cost the State more than 200 million euros per year. It is urgent to channel these resources to where they can really make a difference: strengthening social action, guaranteeing decent accommodation and ending inequalities between students. Let us not waste time in ideological debates about tuition fees, let us be practical: let us put an end to the reimbursement of tuition fees and strengthen social action.

The second major challenge for Higher Education is the revision of the RJIES. We must strengthen the autonomy of Higher Education Institutions, promote more democratic and representative governance and open them up to society. The current model for electing rectors and presidents, limited to general councils of 15 to 35 members, is a closed system, vulnerable to factional logic and predominantly internal interests. A new model, more plural and participatory, could be an opportunity to renew the legitimacy of leadership and bring HEIs closer to their community.

The reform must be ambitious in strengthening institutional autonomy, which must of course be accompanied by adequate levels of funding. Without financial capacity, there is no strategic planning or true autonomy. But ambition must also be present in the architecture of the system. Allowing polytechnic institutes to offer doctorates, based on a careful assessment of their technical and scientific quality, was an important step. But allowing the designation of “polytechnic university” to institutions that only offer doctorates is a levelling down. Excellence and high standards cannot be achieved by taking shortcuts.

It is also essential that this review ensures the creation of a national statute for higher education students. It is unacceptable that two students in the same situation are treated differently simply because they are enrolled in different institutions. A statute that ensures rights and duties that are recognised across the board is essential for the cohesion of the system.

In short, Higher Education needs institutional reform, more investment and social justice. The return of tuition fees in the form of salary bonuses must end, tuition fees paid by students must not increase, and existing resources must be effectively redirected to social action and housing. In parallel, the RJIES must be revised to respond to new challenges, with more democracy, more autonomy and more responsibility. The time to act is now — and failing in this mission is to jeopardize the country's future.