Admission – Courses taught in Portuguese

To apply for the international student programme, you must meet the following requirements:

1. Be a national of a country that does not belong to the European Union;
2. Hold a Portuguese secondary school diploma or equivalent qualification;
3. Have a diploma or certificate issued by a competent authority in your country of origin, which proves that you have passed and that it gives you access to higher education.
4. Have taken a higher education entrance exam equivalent to the Portuguese entrance exams required for the course they wish to study. If the student has not taken any type of exam equivalent to the Portuguese entrance exams, they will have to take an online exam, written or oral, from Universidade Portucalense, relating to the subjects equivalent to the entrance exams.

You cannot apply:

• If you are a beneficiary of the Equal Rights and Duties Statute on 1 January of the year you wish to enter;
• If you have dual nationality, one of which is Portuguese;
• If the applicant or his/her parents have been legally resident in Portugal for more than two years, uninterruptedly, on 1 January of the year of entry to higher education. In this situation, the time spent living in Portugal on a study visa is not counted.
• If you are a family member of Portuguese nationals or nationals of an EU member state, regardless of their nationality.
• If you applied to enter higher education through the special access regimes regulated by Decree-Law 393-A/99 of 2nd October, amended by Decree-Law 272/2009 of 1st October.

International Students Regulation

knowledge of the subjects of the entrance exams set for the cycle of studies to which they are applying.

For this purpose, the following exams can be considered:

Final exams homologous to the Portuguese entrance exams, in accordance with the provisions of article 20-A of Decree-Law no. 296-A/98, of 25 September, in its current wording

Or

Exams listed in the following table:

When the exams taken by the candidate in their country of origin are not considered equivalent to the subjects of the entrance exams required in Portugal, the candidate will have to take two Specific Academic Qualification exams at Universidade Portucalense (see table of exams per course).
If the candidate has taken final secondary school exams that are not covered in numbers 1 and 2, they can submit them for consideration by the Jury of the Specific Academic Qualification Exams, sending their duly legalised supporting certificate to Ingresso@upt.pt.

Validity of exams

Only exams taken in 2025 or in the last 5 years (2020 – 2024) will be considered.

The application is made by filling in the Application Form available on the Applications Portal or in person at the Portucalense University Admissions Office and must be accompanied by:

1. Identification document (Citizen’s Card/Passport) or declaration containing identification data;
2. An up-to-date photograph;
3. Declaration on honour that the applicant is covered by the international student status;
4. Declaration on honour that the candidate is aware of the procedures associated with the submission of documents
5. Document proving knowledge of the Portuguese language (document issued by a competent body or declaration of honour issued by the applicant);
6. Document(s) proving that the entrance exams have been taken (national exams, similar exams, ENEM, etc.). You will only be admitted if you score 95 or more (on the 0-200 scale) in the entrance exams (or equivalent exams).
7. Diploma or certificate issued by a competent authority attesting to having passed a secondary education course/programme, with an indication of the final average;
8. Declaration issued by the official education services of the country of origin attesting that the secondary qualification they hold, obtained in that country, is sufficient for them to enter official higher education in courses similar to those they intend to apply for. Alternatively, a certificate of equivalence to Portuguese secondary education issued by a competent national body.

ATTENTION

Foreign documents or documents issued abroad must be authenticated by the official education services of the respective country and recognised by the consular services or embassies of Portugal based in the country to which the qualification relates, or alternatively, legalised by the Apostille system under the terms of the Hague Convention. Documents whose original language is not Portuguese, Spanish, French or English must be translated into Portuguese.
The document proving your ENEM results does not need to be authenticated as this information is confirmed with INEP.

NOTE: Other supporting documents may be requested during the process of analysing the application.

Students who are not nationals of a European Union country must apply for a study visa at the Portuguese Embassy/Consulate before travelling to Portugal.

Ask them about the higher education student visa and the procedure for obtaining it.

In order to obtain the visa, Universidade Portucalense applies the provisions of Ministerial Order no. 111/2019, of 12 April, on the issue of visas for foreign students.

In order to comply with the legislation:

sends a nominal list of all enrolled candidates to the Directorate-General for Higher Education – DGES;
sends a declaration of acceptance for visa purposes by e-mail to the enrolled candidate.

The Portuguese Consulate in your country / area of residence will publish a nominal list of candidates enrolled at Universidade Portucalense. It is your responsibility to go to this office to follow up the issuing of the visa.

Please note:

Universidade Portucalense sends out the nominal list of all enrolled candidates, and is not responsible for possible delays in issuing visas. In these cases, you should contact the Portuguese Consulate in your country / area of residence.