News from Angola- Portuguese Universities and Polytechnics want to attract even more. Foreigners help combat demographic thinning in some areas of Portugal and bring economic benefits to educational establishments. Angola is included in the countries that bring the most students to Portugal.
The Universities and Polytechnics of Portugal want to increase the number of foreigners studying in that European country. It is one of the objectives of the Universities Portugal consortium, a project that aims to promote the Portuguese education sector abroad.
In the last academic year, the record of almost 70 thousand foreigners studying in Higher Education in Portugal was reached. Filomena Soares, vice-rector of the University of Minho believes that “there is still room for more students coming from abroad”.
Of these 69,965 foreign students in Portugal, about half are Brazilians, the rest come from Portuguese-speaking countries such as Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe and Guinea-Bissau. Finally from Europe, they arrive mainly from Spain, France, Italy and Germany.
“It is a way of attracting new audiences, trying to somehow combat this demographic thinning that is a reality”, argues the vice-rector.
Filomena Soares also recognizes that there is a local economic advantage, because “they come to live in our cities, there is a demand for everything”, but also for educational establishments.
The main universities – Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra – are the most sought after by foreigners, but Filomena Soares reveals that “there is now clearly a demand for Minho and Aveiro, which are also areas of choice”.
Young Angolan students have also chosen, in addition to large urban centres, Universities and Polytechnics in the interior of Portugal, such as Bragança, Guarda, Portalegre and Covilhã. In some of them, there are student associations with various areas of intervention in sport and culture in Portugal.
Universities Portugal promoted, in the last week of November this year, a conference on the inclusion capacity of Higher Education. One of the realities that can be seen is that, despite the efforts, there are still problems with the interaction of foreign students, especially in terms of cultural differences and the Portuguese language.
The strengths of Higher Education in Portugal are several.
“There is recognition of Portuguese education, it is well positioned and the Portuguese people are welcoming, friendly and inclusive”, argues Filomena Soares, adding as positive points the country’s security, the standard of living that “is still affordable when compared to other places” and the cultural richness of the country, concluded vice-rector Filomena Soares.