Just 1,625 of the 49,991 Students Placed in Portugal's First University Round Came From the Poorest Bracket

Portugal placed 49,991 students in the first round of this year's national higher-education competition, out of a record 60,391 candidates. Of those placed, 1,625 were beneficiaries of escalão A, the top tier of Ação Social Escolar (school social support) reserved for the lowest-income households. That is roughly 3 percent of the intake, down from 3.5 percent a year earlier, and José Moreira, president of the Sindicato Nacional do Ensino Superior (National Union of Higher Education), calls it the figure that should worry people most. "Esse é o número mais alarmante," he said.

The quota is doing most of the work

Since 2023 the competition has carried a contingente prioritário, a priority quota reserving 2 percent of first-phase places for escalão A candidates. This year 1,252 of the 1,625 came in through it. Strip the quota out and fewer than 400 of the poorest students would have won a place through the general competition, which is the part of the system that is supposed to be blind to income and is not.

Moreira's explanation is blunt and testable. "Existe uma correlação direta entre as formações que exigem uma nota de entrada mais elevada e a situação socioeconómica dos alunos que entram para estas formações," he said: the courses with the highest entry grades take the students from the most comfortable homes. Medicine, the engineering degrees at Instituto Superior Técnico and the law faculties clear the bar at grades that are, in practice, built in secondary school and topped up with paid tutoring.

That is where he wants the fix. Rather than trying to repair the gap at the point of entry to university, he argues for a public secondary system that can get students there without external help: "É preciso encontrar modelos de funcionamento da escola pública em que as aprendizagens sejam estimuladas sem ser necessário recorrer a ajudas externas, como é o caso das explicações." Explicações, the private after-school tutoring that Portuguese families buy by the hour, is the quiet cost that decides a lot of these grades. He adds that institutions can close remaining gaps once students arrive, provided staff are given the conditions to do it.

The money is moving, the share is not

The state has been adding cash at the same time as the share slipped. Escalão A students in higher education roughly doubled to about 2,800 in 2023, when the quota began. This year brings a new 1,075-euro incentive grant for first-time entrants from low-income families, paid automatically once enrolment is confirmed, with more than 600 applications logged by 21 August. The displaced-student housing grant rose to 161 euros a month and dropped its rental-contract requirement. A wider overhaul of student support starts phasing in from 2026/2027.

None of that changes who reaches the starting line. Grants help a poor student survive a degree; they do not raise the exam grade that gets the offer.

What this means for residents

• Escalão A is a household means test, not a nationality test. Ação Social Escolar tiers follow the abono de família bracket, so foreign-resident families in Portugal qualify on the same terms as Portuguese ones. If your child is in tier A, the priority quota applies.
• The quota only runs in the first phase. It reserves 2 percent of first-phase places and applies to first-time entrants to public higher education. Students entering later phases do not get it.
• Budget for explicações honestly. The grade inflation that decides entry to the competitive courses is bought as much as it is earned. Families planning a Portuguese secondary route should price tutoring in from year one, not year three.
• Support stacks. The 1,075-euro incentive, the bolsa de ação social and the displaced-student housing top-up are separate instruments with separate applications.

The second phase of the competition opens shortly, with far fewer places than last year. It will not move the escalão A share much: the quota that carries most of these students exists only in the round that has already closed.