Polytechnic (Portugal)
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Polytechnic is one of the two sub-systems of
Polytechnic education focuses on
The polytechnics emerged in the 1980s, through the transformation of already existing non-university higher education schools of teachers and agriculture, at the same time that entirely new schools in other fields were also being built. Later, other higher education schools, like the higher institutes of engineering, accounting and administration, the higher schools of nursery, nursing schools and the Nautical School, were also integrated in the polytechnic education.
Organization
The polytechnic higher education is mostly provided by polytechnic institutes (institutos politécnicos) that can be public or private. The polytechnic institutes are federations of polytechnic schools, with each school focusing on one or several related subjects areas. These schools are usually named "higher schools" (escolas superiores), although some are named "higher institutes" (institutos superiores). There are also some independent polytechnic schools (not integrated in polytechnic institutes or in other larger institutions) and polytechnic schools that are integrated in universities (despite this, providing polytechnic and not university education).
There are fifteen public polytechnic institutes in Portugal. Each of these cover a region of responsibility that usually corresponds to the area of a district in Portugal. The residents in the regions of each institute have priority access to the programs of their respective polytechnics. Also, the programs offered by the polytechnics usually take their respective regions in consideration, focusing in the specific economic, technical and social needs of the local communities. Because of these features, the polytechnic institutes can be compared to community colleges in the United States.
The polytechnic institutes usually have multiple campus, each one having installed one or more of their schools.
History
There are fifteen state-run polytechnical institutes (the polytechnics) in
Polytechnic Schools (Escolas Politécnicas) were created in the 19th century in
According to studies and reports, in the 1990s and 2000s, a fast growth and proliferation of private higher education and state-run polytechnical institutions with lower educational standards and ambiguous academic integrity, was responsible for unnecessary and uneconomic allocation of resources with no adequate quality output in terms of both new highly qualified graduates and research.[3] Since the creation of the Portuguese higher education polytechnical system, admission to public university programmes has been often more demanding and selective than to their equivalent in public polytechnics. Many specific university institutions and degrees have also been regarded as more prestigious and reputed than their peers from the polytechnic system.[4][5]
References
- ^ (in Portuguese) Andrea Trindade, “Ausência de regras favorece a concorrência desqualificada”, "O facto de cada instituição poder definir regras próprias de ingresso para os seus cursos é, no entender de Seabra Santos, mais um factor de «concorrência desqualificada e de nivelamento por baixo»: Uma escola de Engenharia, por exemplo, pode decidir que os seus estudantes não precisam de Matemática para entrar.", Diário de Coimbra (February 2, 2009)
- Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação da Universidade de Coimbra(in Portuguese)
- (January 8, 2007)
- ^ (in Portuguese) Andrea Trindade, “Ausência de regras favorece a concorrência desqualificada”, "O facto de cada instituição poder definir regras próprias de ingresso para os seus cursos é, no entender de Seabra Santos, mais um factor de «concorrência desqualificada e de nivelamento por baixo»: Uma escola de Engenharia, por exemplo, pode decidir que os seus estudantes não precisam de Matemática para entrar.", Diário de Coimbra (February 2, 2009)
- ^ (in Portuguese) Cláudia Valadas Urbano, A candidatura ao ensino superior politécnico: Escolha ou recurso? Archived 2011-07-16 at the Wayback Machine
See also
- Higher Education in Portugal
- List of higher education institutions in Portugal#Polytechnic
- Polytechnic (disambiguation)