Portugal Welcomed Over 70,000 Int’l Students in 2022

A total of 74,597 international students attended higher education institutions in Portugal last year, data from the Directorate-General for Education and Science Statistics (DGEEC) have shown.

In other words, international students represented 17 percent of the student body in the country, Erudera.com reports.

Figures show that of 74,597 international students, 17,822 were enrolled in higher education institutions under international credit mobility programs, such as the Erasmus Program.

Among students who were enrolled to pursue an entire degree in a Portuguese higher education institution, the majority were from Brazil (17,028), followed by Guinea-Bissau (6,910), Cape Verde (6,449), Angola (5,292) and France (3406).

According to the same data, the overall number of students enrolled at Portuguese universities and polytechnics during the 2022/23 academic year was 446,028 students.

With 446,028 students, enrollment in Portuguese universities reached an all-time high, a notable increase of 12,811 students or three percent compared to the previous year.

Of this total, 359,397 were enrolled in public higher education, while 86,631, or 19.5 percent, were in private higher education. Moreover, data indicate that 155,082 students enrolled for the first time in their first year, with more women than men in all areas of education and training.

Male students were more interested in pursuing the following fields of study:

• Information and communication technologies
• Engineering, manufacturing and construction
• Services

Within the higher education enrolment, polytechnics accounted for 30.5 percent of students (135,833) when comparing different types of institutions.

Furthermore, the number of students in the country has increased by 24 percent since the 2015/16 academic year, when 358,450 attended higher education in Portugal.

Given the increase in the number of students last academic year, Portugal is making steady progress towards achieving a 60 percent higher education enrollment rate among young people.

“This result reinforces confidence that Portugal is on the right track to achieve its long-term qualification goals, which aim to achieve by 2030 an average attendance rate in higher education of 60 percent among young people aged 20, as well as 50 percent of higher education graduates aged between 30 and 34,” a report by the Portuguese Government said.

Portugal is home to some of the top universities that host many international students, including one of Europe’s oldest universities, the University of Coimbra, founded in 1290. The institution was the first and the only Portuguese-speaking university until the beginning of the 20th century.

Other popular universities in Portugal are:

• University of Lisbon
• University of Porto
• University of Aveiro
• NOVA University Lisbon
• University of Minho
• Polytechnic Institute of Porto
• Catholic University of Portugal

>> Best Schools and Universities in Portugal

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