University Applications Close Tonight With 20,317 Candidates Chasing 11,112 Second-Round Places

Applications to the second phase of Portugal's national university admissions competition close tonight, and there are more candidates chasing the remaining places than there were last year. By Friday, two days before the deadline, 20,317 students had applied, which is 3,203 more than the 17,114 that the 2025 second phase closed with.

Against that stands the official vacancy list. The edital published on 31 August by the Instituto para o Ensino Superior sets out the places available for each institution and course pair in the second phase. Adding them up gives 11,112 places across 1,101 pairs. More courses can still open up, because places released by candidates who are reassigned in this phase feed back into the pool, but the published starting point is roughly one place for every two applicants already in the queue.

What happens next, and when

The calendar is short and it does not move. Placement lists go to the institutions and the results are published on 30 September. Enrolment and registration for students placed in the second phase runs from 1 to 3 October, three days only. Complaints about the second-phase results can be filed from 1 to 6 October, and the decision on them is due by 30 October.

A third phase follows almost immediately. The remaining vacancies are published on 9 October, applications run from 10 to 12 October, results come on 18 October and enrolment from 18 to 20 October. Separately, decisions on first-phase complaints are due by 28 September, which is two days before the second-phase results land.

The pattern this repeats

The rise in second-phase applications follows the same direction as the first phase, which also grew. It is not, on its own, evidence of more students: a second-phase application can come from someone who was not placed in August, someone who was placed on a course they did not want, or someone who did not apply at all in July. The first phase this year placed 49,991 students, of whom only 1,625 came from the poorest bracket.

What the second phase does reliably show is where demand is not being met. The vacancy list is heavy with health courses at polytechnics and with science and technology places away from Lisbon and Porto, which is the usual signature of a system where the applications concentrate in a handful of cities and the empty seats are somewhere else.

What this means for you

• Tonight is the actual deadline. The edital confirms that until 20 September inclusive, candidates may both submit a new application and alter one already submitted. After today, neither is possible until the third phase opens on 10 October.
• Changing an existing application is allowed and free. If you applied earlier in the phase and the vacancy list has since made a different course look reachable, you can still reorder your choices today.
• Three days to enrol is not a suggestion. Placement without registration between 1 and 3 October releases the seat back into the pool for the third phase.
• Foreign qualifications follow a different route. The national competition covers the general regime; candidates substituting entrance exams with foreign examinations, and international students, are handled under separate procedures with their own deadlines.

The competition is run under the regulation approved by Portaria n.º 219/2026/1, of 12 May, with the calendar fixed by Despacho n.º 9359-A/2026 of 23 July. Both are worth reading before filing a complaint, because the grounds for one are narrower than most families expect.