Abstract

CERDEIRA, Luisa  and  CABRITO, Belmiro. Democratization and accessibility in higher education in Portugal: recent changes. Acta Scientiarum. Education [online]. 2018, vol.40, n.1, pp.19-20.  Epub Jan 02, 2018. ISSN 2178-5201.  https://doi.org/10.4025/actascieduc.v40i1.40632.

In Portugal, since a few decades ago, there has been an upsurge in the demand for higher education, as well as in the number of undergraduate courses, evidencing a process of construction of mass higher education. Has this growth, however, had a significant effect on the level of accessibility and democratization of the system? These are the questions of this article. In this sense, the authors present some concepts of accessibility (general and financial) and, based on the indicators of academic nature (real rate of schooling and graduation in higher education) and financial nature (total education costs, GDP per capita and Median Income), as well as the socio-economic structure of higher education students in Portugal, on two different periods, 2010 and 2015, discuss the evolution of accessibility and the democratization of Portuguese higher education in the period 2010-2015. It can be concluded that there has been a slight increase in both the level of accessibility and the social strata of higher education recruitment, but the country remains, however, far short of that verified in some of Portugal's partner countries in the European Union.

Keywords : accessibility; higher education; Portugal..

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