A Broader Church? Expansion, Access and Cost-sharing in Portuguese Higher Education

Strengthening Consumer Choice in Higher Education.- Cost-sharing and the Cost-effectiveness of Grants and Loan Subsidies to Higher Education.- Income Related Student Loans: Concepts, International Reforms and Administrative Challenges.- Access to Higher Education in Britain: The Impact of Tuition Fees and Financial Assistance.- The Changing Nature of Public Support for Higher Education in the United States.- The Canadian Experiment in Cost-sharing and its Effects on Access to Higher Education, 1990-2002.- Student and University Funding in Devolved Governments in the United Kingdom.- Student Financing in the Netherlands: A Behavioural Economic Perspective.- A Broader Church? Expansion, Access and Cost-sharing in Portuguese Higher Education.- The German Tuition Fee Debate: Goals, Models and Political Implications of Cost-sharing.- Accessibility and Equity in a State-funded System of Higher Education: The French Case.- Access to Higher Education Within a Welfare State System: Developments and Dilemmas.- Conclusion.

This article compares recent governance reforms in Finnish and Portuguese higher education (HE) systems and institutions (HEIs). Although Portugal and Finland differ significantly, both the countries have recently undertaken similar HE legislative reforms. This article analyses the contexts and implementation processes of these legal frameworks: Law 62/2007 (RJIES) and Yliopistolaki 558/2009 (New Universities Act), aim at changing institutional governance structures, management and decision-making practices. Findings rely on legal documents and on the voices of practitioners. It is argued that new public management ideology and practice, also disseminated by international organizations' agendas (e.g. the Organisation for the Economic Cooperation and Development – OECD, and the European Commission), offer an explanation for similarities in national HE policies. In turn, historical and cultural specifics as well as structural characteristics of political-administrative systems may explain differences in policy design, implementation processes and national outcomes.

The purpose of this article is to characterize and contribute to the debate on the democratization of Portuguese higher education, both in terms of access and the performance of students enrolled in a public university. The analyses concern the sociodemographic characteristics and schooling trajectory of the 2,697 students enrolled for the first time in the University of Minho in the academic year 2015/16. The relationships between such characteristics and the choice of program, expectations regarding higher education, the criteria of admission, and the association with their permanence and performance in the first year of studies are explored as well. Several statistical tests were applied, such as those based on multivariate analysis of variance, chi-squared test for the independence between variables, or the t-Student test for the comparison of means of two independent samples. Results suggest that student’s gender, socio-cultural background and schooling trajectory are related to the choice of the programe, university entrance score and the entrance option. The multivariate analysis of variance of student’s grade point average at the end of the first year suggests the influence of the interaction between the fixed term of scientific-disciplinary area of the program attended and the program option of access to higher education. We did not find any statistically significant association between socio-cultural background and permanence in higher education; i.e, the socio-cultural origin of the students does not seem to influence the decision to abandon, suspend or transfer program, at least during their first year of studies. Our findings suggest student’s resilience and/or institutional action meaning a step further on the path for social equity in the Portuguese higher education.

Based on the Cost-Sharing theory (Johnstone, 1986, 1991, 1992, 2002, 2003), the research on student costs in higher education (HE) plays an important role in the educational policy, namely concerning the equity in cost distribution among students, the State and stakeholders. This study is focused on the socioeconomic characterization of Portuguese HE students and on the research of the costs these students support, as well as the remaining stakeholders (families, governments/ taxpayers and others), according to Johnstone’ cost-sharing theory and mobilized the analysis of the results of three nation-wide surveys in the academic years of 1994-1995 (Cabrito, 2000); 2004-2005 (Cerdeira, 2009) and 2010/2011 (Cerdeira, Cabrito, Patrocínio, Machado & Brites, 2012) to three higher education’s students representative samples (universities and polytechnics, public and private institutions). The study 1) discusses the contribution of Portuguese higher education students for the HE funding; 2) analyses the findings coming from a nationwide study concerning the student’s role on HE funding, in Portugal; 3) places those results in a European perspective. From the comparison undergone between the data coming from the studies on the higher education costs in Portugal, it can be verified that on the period 1994-2010 there was a change on social strata recruitment to HE. In fact, it is possible to realize that the percentage of students coming from rich strata had increased along the period analyzed, fact that can allow us to question about the equity of the Portuguese HE System. On the other side, the studies also allow to conclude that the affordability of Portuguese HE students is minor that homologous indicators taking into account some of the EU and OECD members. Key words: accessibility, affordability, financing, HE costs.

The main objective of this paper is to identify emerging changes in the values and norms related to governance and management in Portuguese higher education and to identify how different kinds of stakeholders perceive these changes. The University Autonomy Act (1988) and the Polytechnics Autonomy Act (1990) by transferring greater responsibility to higher education institutions for the management of institutional life pushed institutional governance to the front stage of the debates on Portuguese higher education. These laws were introduced as instruments of political steering in the framework of the transformation of the relationship between the state and higher education. Some 15 years after those laws were passed, there was an apparent transformation of the opinions about higher education governance and an increasing perception that the autonomy laws provoked some unintended effects, new changes being necessary to increase institutional efficiency. This paper intends to identify what is the content of this transformation and its implications for higher education, and also how different kinds of stakeholders have a perception of these changes. The opinions of former ministers of education, rectors of universities, presidents of polytechnics, administrators of universities and polytechnics, academics, students, unions, professional associations and other stakeholders, are used to analyse how traditional higher education values are being transformed. In some quarters, a change in the norms and values is visible, for instance as an emerging explicit criticism of the collegial values based on the traditional Humboldtian narrative and as a desire for more efficient and effective governance mechanisms. However, in spite of appellative discourses on the rise of academic managerialism and market friendliness, there are groups of stakeholders, including students that offer resistance to the changes of traditional academic norms and values, while academics present a more fragmented perception of these changes, some of them clearly supporting a more managerialist model.

Impact (s) of Doctoral Degrees Held by Faculty Members in Portuguese Higher Education

This article reflects about the contextual and theoretical assumptions of the project ‘Trovoada de Ideias: Linguistic and social inclusion of students from Portuguese-speaking African countries in Portuguese higher education’, an ongoing action research on Portuguese academic language teaching involving students who speak different varieties of Portuguese. By adopting a multidimensional inclusion approach (simultaneously linguistic, cultural and social), the ultimate aim is to contribute to a deeper understanding of the factors of (in)comprehension between students fluent in different norms of Portuguese and the university host community in Portugal, and consequently, building a frame for improving higher education institutions responses to multicultural challenges implied in the social dynamics of language variation.

Promoting the accessibility and affordability in Portuguese higher education

This paper analyses the patterns of international student enrolments in Portugal to understand what makes Portuguese higher education attractive. Employing a database of enrolments in Portuguese higher education institutions in 2017/2018, it uses correspondence analysis to characterise the flows of students coming from different countries and the variation by institution type, qualification level, disciplinary area and location. Attractiveness is not homogeneous. Portuguese-speaking students from Africa tend to enrol in undergraduate degrees, but depending on country of origin they prefer certain institution types. European students are attracted to Health-related programmes in private institutions. Chinese and Brazilian students seek primarily postgraduate qualifications in public universities. Thus, different publics choose Portuguese higher education for different reasons, suggesting that attractiveness is multifaceted and varies by students’ country of origin. The implications are that institutions in countries which are emerging players in international student recruitment need to carefully identify their target publics and distinctive assets.

This work will be the starting point to understand the big picture of the needs and experiences of the visual impaired students in the Portuguese Higher Education (HE). To accomplish this we inquired the visual impaired students or graduates in order to gather information about their academic path in the HE. The presented data is preliminary and our work is still ongoing. The final data will be used in the near future to produce guiding principles to facilitate the establishment of support centers to visual impaired students in Portuguese HE.

The expansion of higher education systems has often been associated with the need for increasing diversification, namely at the program level, based on the pressures to adapt more general programmes to a more diverse student population and multiple regional, social, and economic needs. This paper explores empirically the question of programme diversity by drawing on the Portuguese higher education’ experience, which presented massive expansion during the last decades and significant institutional competition in recent years. The study provides a longitudinal approach and analyzes in detail the evolution of diversification and specialization of the public and private sectors, as well as the university and polytechnic subsectors. The analysis aims at helping to illustrate the relevance of analysing diversity from an empirical point of view and its contribution to our understanding of the complex relationships between competition and diversity in contemporary higher education.

In recent decades, we have observed a growing privateness in higher education around the world. This chapter analyses one of the main dimensions in that trend towards privatisation, namely the development of a strong private sector in the Portuguese setting. The chapter analyses how the private sector came to play a major role in Portuguese higher education. In order to understand these developments better, the Portuguese experience will be discussed against the broader international background of increasing marketisation and privatisation in higher education and the major stylised facts associated with recent waves of privatisation. The chapter concludes by discussing how far Portuguese higher education has followed a peculiar path in this respect and/or shares with other systems a similar pattern of development.

Accessing higher education is a biographical learning experience for all students, which can promote transformations in individuals’ identities. This article aims to investigate the implications of biographical learning experiences on the students’ identities. We will explore African students’ biographical learning experiences in Portuguese higher education and how they shaped their identities. Biographical learning and identity theoretical perspectives were adopted. This is a qualitative study that used biographical interviews with 22 African students enrolling at Portuguese higher education. The content analysis carried out has been organized into 2 themes: biographical learning experiences and identity transformations. The results of the study show that African students gained new knowledge and skills and became more independent and autonomous. They develop their self-confidence and open-mindedness through a new way of seeing the world. Thus, African students’ experiences in higher education contributed to the formation and transformation of their identity.

Students face significant pressures in their decision about their career plan. These pressures are simultaneously internal and external, personal and social, individual and from the reference group. The present paper aims at understanding the reasons driving students' choices, perceived needs, and aspirations. Moreover, it discusses the major influences/pressures of the student's choice and tries to understand how choice is affected by the students' socioeconomic and cultural background and other factors such as institutional reputation or “professional heritage.” The construction of the career plan is analyzed by applying a qualitative analysis methodology through content analysis of the freshmen discourses. The results point out the relevance of social status, intelligence, gender, competences, values, and interests of each person for the construction of his/her career plan. All these levels are highly influenced by self-esteem, which is closely related to the social value of career options and paths. The more central the variable self-esteem is, the less susceptible it will become to change other variables such as educational level, profession accessibility, or gender adequacy.

Using data from the 2013 Chinese Household Income Project (CHIP2013), we analyze intergenerational educationa1 mobility and the distribution of benefits among different groups in the course of educational expansion. Overall, educational expansion has raised educational mobility, reduced the possibility of downward intergenerational educational mobility, and increased the possibility of upward intergenerational mobility. However, the degree to which different types of households have benefited from the expansion of education is closely related to the urban-rural gap and the level of parenta1 education. The expansion of basic education has been more advantageous to the children of less-educated parents, whereas the expansion of higher education has mainly benefited the children of households with higher levels of parental education and to urban children. If, therefore, China is to promote the balanced development of educational modernization and build a nation that is an educational power, it needs to make active adjustments at the policy leve1.