Choosing your Portuguese university

Choose your university carefully and prepare your application with determination!

Before flying to Brazil  to learn Brazilian Portuguese and immerse yourself in Brazilian culture, you can take advantage of the Erasmus scholarship to learn Portuguese and  become bilingual in Portugal. Afterwards, you can take advantage of your knowledge of Portuguese to travel to Macao, East Timor, Rio de Janeiro or Guinea Bissau.

But first, you must choose your university in Portugal . The  Portuguese school system is gradually adapting to conform to  the European LMD system . The country’s public and private universities are already up to date. Only the polytechnic institutes are still in the process of standardization.

Therefore, a validated semester in Portugal will help you obtain your degree in Spain . The LMD system corresponds to the three cycles: bachelor, master, doctorate.

Public and private universities provide theoretical and general knowledge, while polytechnic institutes prepare you for a profession and provide professional training.

The top 5 universities in the country are:

• The  University of Porto  with its 13 faculties, its institute of biomedical sciences and its business school.
• The New University of Lisbon  (NOVA): best Faculty of Economics.
• The  University of Coimbra, the oldest in the country.
• The  University of Lisbon, the largest in the country.
• The  Portuguese Catholic University, recognized business school.

If you go to the universities of Porto or Coimbra, you will surely see that the students wear a particular dress : black suits for men and for women, all with a black tie and cape. JK Rowling, who lived in Porto for a few years, was inspired by this outfit to create the capes worn by Hogwarts students in the Harry Potter saga .