The chairman of the Higher Education Evaluation Committee has warned of the possible disappearance of some higher education institutions and the need for the merger of others, due to the forecasts of a drastic reduction in students.
With the exception of the Algarve and Lisbon, within a decade the amount of young people will mean the current network of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) will see closure or mergers.
Between 2020 and 2035, there will be a drop of 26% in young people between 18 and 29 years old in the north of Portugal, that is, “about a quarter of young people disappear”, warned Alberto Amaral, adding that foreign students will not be enough to make up for this decrease.
In an interview with Lusa news agency, Alberto Amaral said that "there is a very complicated problem of demography". He explained that the commission's work is still at an early stage and that, at this moment, it is only possible to do "futurology" on the proposals that will be in the report, which will be presented at the end of the year.
In Madeira the amount of young people will be 30% less, according to the OECD, in the Porto area will be 26% less, and around 14% to 15% less for the center of the country. The exceptions will be Lisbon and the Algarve, where there will be “a slight increase” in young people.
“All of this will be reflected in a very complicated problem which is the Higher Education network. There will probably be a greater impact in the interior”, stressed the official, adding that private education will be the most affected, because it is “more expensive and with less prestige”.
But, he warned, “where there is no private sector, it will directly affect the public”, and there may be “closings or mergers of institutions”.
Emphasizing that it was a mere exercise in futurology, Alberto Amaral admitted mergers in the interior of the country, for example, between the polytechnics of Beja, Portalegre and Évora.
In the proposals to change the RJIES, the commission may suggest to the Government – “who is responsible for deciding” – a minimum number of students per institution or a certain number of doctorates, he said.
Alberto Amaral recalled the Australian case, where the Government decided to stop funding institutions that had less than two thousand students, leading to several mergers: “The minister said they had to merge, but he did not say with whom”, he said.
The commission has now started a series of conferences and debates to listen to the community: The commission's proposal "will be an interpretation of what is felt by people, namely academics and people who are in higher education and not, properly, a position of the commission", he explained.
Today, the international conference “Autonomy and Government in Higher Education” kicks off at the Lisbon Academy of Sciences, organized by Edulog – an initiative of the Belmiro de Azevedo Foundation.
The first day will look at what is being done abroad, with the presence of several foreign specialists, and on Friday the national situation will be discussed.
One of the topics will be the way in which higher institutions are managed, added Alberto Amaral, explaining that the first lecturer is an American professor who will show that “Collegiality has been maintained in the great research Universities”.
“The 'board', which is the top body, is dedicated to raising money and securing funding for the institution. Everything of an academic nature – such as decisions about courses, promotion of professors, hiring of professors or research – is in the hands of academics”, said Alberto Amaral.
In this “shared governance in which functions are well defined”, there are debates between the 'board' and academics on issues such as the internal distribution of funding, “but the 'board' does not interfere in the institution's current and daily decisions, such as happens in our general councils”.
In Portuguese institutions there is a General Council that “can intervene in a much more intrusive way than what happens with the American boards”, he added, stressing that the commission will wait for what people will say in the national survey to then take a position on this matter.
Source https://postal.pt/
