DGES Books the 2026 Concurso Nacional de Acesso Candidaturas Window From 20 July to 6 August — 1.ª Fase Results Land 23 August, 2.ª Fase Opens 24 August

The Direção-Geral do Ensino Superior (DGES, Directorate-General for Higher Education) has locked the 2026 Concurso Nacional de Acesso ao Ensino Superior Público (National Competition for Access to Public Higher Education) calendar, with the 1.ª fase (first phase) candidaturas window opening on Monday 20 July 2026 and closing on Thursday 6 August 2026. The framework was set by Portaria n.º 207/2025/1 of 2 May 2026, signed by the Ministro da Educação, Inovação e Ciência (Minister of Education, Innovation and Science) Fernando Alexandre and published in Diário da República (the Official Gazette).

The four-week run-up to the candidaturas window is busy. The 1.ª fase of the exames nacionais (national secondary-school exams) sits from 16 to 26 June 2026 — 166,339 candidates across 340,382 papers in 25 disciplines, the volume tape that DGES uses to size the cohort. Provas finais results are published online by the Júri Nacional de Exames (National Exam Board) on 13 July 2026, four days before the candidaturas portal opens. The 2.ª fase of national exams runs 16-22 July 2026 for students who repeat or improve in time for the second-phase pool.

The compressed window — eighteen calendar days from 20 July to 6 August — lands online via the Portal das Candidaturas, with authentication through the senha de acesso issued by DGES to every registered exam candidate. Candidatos abrangidos pelo contingente prioritário para emigrantes, familiares que com eles residam e luso-descendentes (candidates covered by the priority quota for emigrants, family members residing with them and Portuguese descendants), along with applicants requesting the substitution of provas de ingresso (entrance exams) by foreign qualifications, must file by 27 July 2026 — the earlier sub-deadline that catches the cross-border cohort.

Listas de colocação (placement lists) reach the higher-education institutions on Saturday 22 August 2026, with public publication of the 1.ª fase results on Sunday 23 August 2026. Matrículas e inscrições (enrolment and registration) for first-phase placements run from 24 to 28 August 2026. The 2.ª fase candidaturas open immediately after on 24 August and close on 4 September 2026, with results due 22 September 2026 and second-phase enrolment through 28 September 2026. The 3.ª fase wraps the cycle in early October.

The 56,790 public higher-education places for 2026/27 — including the 1,656 Medicina places (a 62-place expansion on 2025/26) — feed into the same calendar through the regime geral pipeline. Regimes especiais (special regimes), including the contingente prioritário for Açores, Madeira, emigrants, luso-descendentes, athletes and disabled applicants, are interleaved within the same window. Concursos institucionais run separately, on each institution's own calendar.

What This Means for Expats and Residents

• Luso-descendent families: The 27 July sub-deadline is the binding date for the contingente prioritário, not 6 August. Documentary proof (consulate registo, family-link evidence) must reach DGES inside that earlier window or the application defaults to the open contingente, where competition is materially tighter.
• Returning Portuguese students with foreign A-levels, IB, Baccalauréat or High-School qualifications: The substituição de provas de ingresso request — DGES's equivalence pathway for foreign secondary qualifications — files on the same 27 July sub-deadline. Apostille and certified-translation evidence should be assembled now.
• Lisbon and Porto applicants: Médias de entrada (entry averages) on the popular Medicina, Engenharia Informática, Direito, Arquitetura and Gestão tracks at Universidade de Lisboa, NOVA, Porto and ISCTE-IUL routinely close above 18.0 in the 1.ª fase — second-phase capacity at those tracks is typically zero, so a serious shot needs the first window.
• Ação Social no Ensino Superior: The 2026/27 cycle lifted the average bolsa (grant) by 53% to €2,660 a year — placement-confirmed students should file the bolsa de ação social application during the 24-28 August enrolment window to anchor the September-onwards calendar.

The full calendar and the Guia da Candidatura 2026 are published on dges.gov.pt, with the Portal das Candidaturas reopening for the live filing window on the morning of 20 July 2026.