Professional education students will take regional exams at the institution closest to their area of ​​residence and with the result they can apply to all universities and polytechnics that open places for special competitions.

According to today’s newspaper Público, students completing vocational education, for whom a new way of accessing higher education was created starting this year, will experience a model that is new in Portugal: regional exams , scheduled for September.

The newspaper said, with information provided by the chairman of the Coordinating Council of the Higher Polytechnic Institutes (CCISP), Pedro Dominguinhos, that three consortia, in the north, center and south of the country, will do specific tests to rank candidates.

The initiative is from the polytechnic institutes, but there are universities that will also integrate them.

Each student will take only one entrance exam, at the institution closest to their area of ​​residence and with that result, they can apply to all universities and polytechnics in the region that open vacancies for these special competitions.

The possibility of a single exam will be on the table next school year.

For the moment, two consortia are formalized. One in the North – which includes the polytechnics of Bragança, Porto, Cávado and Ave and Viana do Castelo – and another in the South, with the polytechnics of Setúbal, Santarém, Portalegre and Beja, as well as the Higher School of Hospitality and Tourism of Estoril and the Infante D. Henrique Nautical School, in Oeiras. This network is also part of the University of Algarve, which has polytechnic education.

The third consortium, in the Centro region, involving polytechnics such as Coimbra and Leiria, is not yet completed, according to Pedro Dominguinhos.

The University of Aveiro, which also has polytechnic education, can also join the consortium. Universities are lagging behind.

“The special competition for professional education graduates – which also covers those who have taken artistic or apprenticeship courses – allows each student to apply for three different higher education courses, which, according to the rules approved in April by the Government, it could force them to do more than one entrance exam, ”the newspaper said.

If a student applied for degrees from different institutions, he would have to take three separate specific tests.

Speaking to the public, the president of the CCISP said that “it makes little sense for students to be taking tests in all the institutions they want to run for”.

The next academic year in higher education begins in the first weeks of October, after changes in the calendar due to the covid-19 pandemic.

Institutions have until May 18 to approve their internal regulations and define the access formula to use and tell the Government whether or not they want to open these special competitions in the next school year.