University students, and those in other forms of higher education, will be protesting today in front of the government’s headquarters, at Campus XX1, against the proposal in the 2027 State Budget to unfreeze tuition fees for the next academic year.
The protest, scheduled for 17h00 has been called by the student associations of the faculties of Arts, Fine Arts, Psychology and the Institute of Education of the University of Lisbon, the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of NOVA University Lisbon and the Lisbon School of Music.
Student representatives oppose the intention to unfreeze fees, which have remained unchanged since 2020, for bachelor’s degrees, Higher Professional Technical Courses (CTeSP) and master’s degrees essential for practising a profession.
The measure, which is included in the proposed State Budget for 2027, provides that the maximum tuition fee will be equal to the ceiling set in 2026/2027 (€697), plus the average rate of change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), excluding housing, recorded in 2026.
As education minister Fernando Alexandre has ventured, the increase will not exclude any student from higher education, as when tuition fees, so too do the ‘bolsas’ (student support packages) offered by the State. This reasoning was not welcomed by student associations which stress that bolsas are not ‘sufficient’ in the first place, and many students discover they are not eligible for them.
Source material: Observador/ Lusa
Natasha Donn
Journalist for the Portugal Resident.