Portugal's Last University Round Starts With 3,256 Places, Most of Them at Polytechnics, and Closes on Monday

The third and final phase of the Concurso Nacional de Acesso (National Access Competition) to Portugal's public universities and polytechnics opened on Saturday and closes on Monday, 12 October. Institutions have put 3,256 places up for application across 950 courses, according to the vacancy notice published on Friday evening by the Instituto para o Ensino Superior (Higher Education Institute, IES), which runs the competition.

Results will be published on 18 October, and anyone placed must enrol at their institution between 18 and 20 October, under the calendar set by Despacho n.º 9359-A/2026 (Dispatch 9359-A/2026).

Where the places are

Most of the places are at polytechnics: 1,939, against 1,317 at universities. The Politécnico de Santarém offers the most, 209, followed by the polytechnics of Guarda (197), Coimbra (192), Leiria (185) and Viseu (180). Among universities, the Universidade de Lisboa has 175, Beira Interior 161, Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro 148 and Coimbra 145.

The largest single offer is agronomy at Santarém's agricultural school, with 48 places. Computer engineering is widely available outside the big cities: 30 places at the Coimbra polytechnic's school in Oliveira do Hospital, 25 at Tomar, 23 at Guarda and 20 at Castelo Branco. Nursing has places at several schools, including 10 at the Escola Superior de Enfermagem do Porto (Porto Nursing School) and 7 at Viseu.

The most sought-after degrees have little or nothing left. Of the medical degrees in the notice, only Coimbra offers a place, and it offers one. Lisbon's law faculty shows zero.

A zero matters. In 256 of the 950 courses listed, the institution has opened the third phase but offers no places up front. It will fill only places freed when students already placed in an earlier phase move to another course in this round. Those freed places are published together with the final results.

The second phase left 4,069 places empty, as we reported on 30 September. Each institution decides which of its remaining places to reopen, so not all of them come back in this round.

Who can apply

The competition's rules, approved by Portaria n.º 219/2026/1 (Ordinance 219/2026/1) of 12 May, let five groups apply in the third phase:

• candidates who were not placed in any phase they entered;
• candidates placed in the first or second phase;
• candidates who were placed but did not enrol;
• students who could have applied in the earlier phases but did not;
• students who only met the conditions to apply after the second phase closed.

There is a single quota in this phase, and the preferential schemes that apply in earlier rounds do not.

Students already enrolled should weigh one rule carefully. If you are placed in a different course in the third phase, your earlier placement and enrolment are cancelled automatically, and your first institution sends your file and the fees you paid to the new one. If you are placed in the same course, you keep the place you already had.

How to apply

Applications are submitted on the IES online platform, reached from dges.gov.pt, where the full vacancy notice and the course-by-course lists are also published. The IES recommends checking the available places and the application conditions before submitting.

Undergraduate fees at public institutions are capped at 697 euros a year for 2026 to 2027. The 2027 budget proposal would unfreeze that cap from the following year, raising it in line with inflation.

Our guide to applying to a public university in Portugal explains how the national competition works.