Polytechnic institutes will be able to adopt the designation “Polytechnic Universityy” and thus confer the degree of doctor. Commission for Education and Sciencepresented by the PS parliamentary group and approved this Friday in Parliament, aims to enhance polytechnic education nationally and internationally.
However, says the renewed diploma, only higher education establishments with human and organizational resources “necessary to carry out research”, with “accumulated experience, subject to evaluation and materialized in relevant scientific and academic production”, can only confer the doctoral degree. .
The changes to the current law provide that institutions can “use together with their name in Portuguese, which is always mandatory, a name in English”. The approved document, with practical effects “on the first day of the subsequent academic year”, provides for an amendment to the Basic Law of the Educational System and the Legal Regime of Higher Education Institutions (RJIES), which is under revision.
Doctorates to attract students and value regions
The president of the National Federation of Associations of Polytechnic Higher Education Students (FNAEESP), João Pedro Pereira, considers, in statements to Lusa, that the measure values the institutions, but also the interior regions: “It was the result of a lot of work between the institutions themselves and the students: that decision-makers have a sense of the territory they have and the need for innovation”. According to João Pedro Pereira, the introduction of doctorates in polytechnics will reinforce research in institutions and contribute to innovation in companies.
Even so, the president of FNAEESP recalls that “universities have done their job, but are not geared towards this impact”, maintaining that, due to the natural proximity between the business sector and polytechnic institutes, companies will benefit from the measure, above all training and qualification of its workers.
The president of the Coordinating Council of Higher Polytechnic Institutes (CCISP), Maria José Fernandes considers the measure “important for the country and for many regions that do not have universities, therefore being a victory for regional development”.
In an interview with Lusa, Maria José Fernandes takes the view that this change will reinforce the role of polytechnics “as promoters of territories with low demographic density”, generating a dynamic of “attraction of students, sustainability of institutions, development of regions and international competitiveness of Portuguese higher education”.
The proposal that allows polytechnic institutes adopt the designation “Polytechnic Universityy” and check the degree of doctor was approved with the favorable votes of all benches and only five votes against: four PS deputies – Filipe Neto Brandão, Bruno Aragão, Cláudia Santos, José Pedro Ferreira – and the social-democrat deputy António Topa Gomes.