Portugal's Second University Round Fills 9,116 Seats, While Almost Half of the 4,069 Left Empty Sit at Five Polytechnics

Portugal's public universities and polytechnics placed 9,116 students in the second phase of this year's national access contest, 292 more than a year ago, according to the results published at one minute past midnight on Wednesday. But 4,069 places found nobody, and almost half of them are at just five polytechnic institutes.

The figures come from the official note and the course-by-course results that the Instituto para o Ensino Superior (Institute for Higher Education), formerly the Directorate-General for Higher Education (DGES), put online on its dges.gov.pt website with the placements. Students placed in this round must enrol at their university or polytechnic between 1 and 3 October.

Who applied, and who got in

There were 22,537 valid applications for the second phase, and 208 more were excluded because the applicants did not meet the conditions. The mix shows how much of this round is about second chances:

• 6,189 applicants had not taken part in the first phase at all, up 11 percent from 5,595 in 2025;
• 6,427 had applied in the first phase and not been placed;
• 2,719 had been placed in August but did not enrol;
• 7,202 had been placed and had already enrolled, and were trying for a course they preferred.

The first phase placed 49,991 students, 6,092 more than in 2025, and 45,491 of them (91 percent) went on to enrol. Places left empty by those who did not enrol were added to the second round.

For the second phase, 11,112 places were on offer. Another 1,956 opened up as students who had enrolled in August moved to a course they preferred, and 117 extra places were created under the contest rules. Once the results were in, 4,069 were still empty.

Where the empty places are

The gap is sharpest in the polytechnic network away from the big cities. The Instituto Politécnico de Bragança (Bragança Polytechnic Institute) put 1,282 places into the second round, placed 438 students and was left with 885 empty places, more than a fifth of the national total. It was followed by the polytechnics of Castelo Branco (308 empty places), Viseu (307), Santarém (243) and Guarda (241). Together, those five account for 1,984 of the 4,069 places left over.

The universities, by contrast, were left with 964 empty places between them. ISCTE, the university institute in Lisbon, filled every place, and the University of Porto was left with 30. The Polytechnic Institutes of Lisbon and Porto, which drew 1,822 and 2,342 first-choice applications, were left with 20 and 14 empty places.

Single courses show the pattern. Bragança's computer engineering degree offered 74 places and placed six students. The same course at Castelo Branco placed five students for 71 places, and at Beja six for 53.

Engineering, farming and science struggle to fill seats

By field of study, engineering and related techniques account for a third of the empty places: 1,336 of the 2,278 engineering places offered in the second phase were not filled. Agriculture, forestry and fisheries placed 77 students for 436 places, leaving 372 empty. The physical sciences were left with 207 empty places, and computing with 236.

Law, and information and journalism, filled every second-phase place. Health placed 1,070 students and was left with 158 empty places.

Competition at the top end stayed fierce. The last student placed in medicine at NOVA University's medical faculty in Lisbon had an application grade of 190.2 out of 200. At Coimbra the cut-off for medicine was 187.7, at the University of Lisbon 186.2 and at the University of Beira Interior 185.7. The highest cut-off of the round, 196.8, was for aerospace engineering at the University of Porto's engineering faculty, which had a single place to fill.

What happens next

Each institution now decides, course by course, whether to open a third phase. If it does, it can offer no more places than those left over from the second phase plus any freed up by students who do not enrol this week. The institute publishes the third-phase places on 9 October, and applications run online from 10 to 12 October. Our new guide to applying to a public university in Portugal explains how the contest works, from entrance exams to enrolment.

For families, the practical point is the enrolment window. A student placed on Wednesday who does not enrol by 3 October loses the place, which then goes back into the pool.

The first phase in August showed a similar split, with more than 11,500 places left open after the first round, as we reported at the time. For students who need help with the cost, our guide to applying for a university grant sets out how, and our look at the first-round intake covers how few students came from the poorest households.

Source: Instituto para o Ensino Superior (dges.gov.pt), "Acesso ao Ensino Superior 2026: Resultados da 2.ª fase do Concurso Nacional de Acesso" (note, tables 1 and 2), and the second-phase list of the grades of the last students placed, both published on 30 September 2026.