UPT intends to affirm itself as a paradigm in higher education for its innovative interdisciplinary offer, taking advantage of the synergies of its departments. In a Europe whose concern is lifelong learning, UPT assumes itself as a University of parents and children, contributing to Portugal becoming a competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy, with more and better jobs and social cohesion.
UPT offers a large and modern campus, located in the Asprela University Campus, recognised for its high degree of technological innovation, with the aim of providing students with quality education. The several computer labs available 24 hours a day, complemented by a wireless network in the campus, facilitate the access to information, favouring the student’s personal and scientific development and enhancing the student-centred teaching, who becomes the main actor that builds knowledge and acquires skills. Throughout the campus there are several areas that, besides the Library, invite to reflection and study, as well as to socialising, such as the Bookshop, the forums, the canteen, bars, indoor and outdoor terraces and car parks.
Universidade Portucalense Infante D. Henrique (UPT) is a cooperative higher education and scientific research establishment whose creation was supported legally through the Order No. 122/86 of June 28 and recognized its utility.
In accordance with this legal determination and under the designation of Universidade Portucalense Infante D. Henrique, it began its activities on June 30th of that year, and the courses started operating on October 16th, 1986.
This institution provides different courses recognized by the Ministry of Education, for which it has its own qualified and qualified teaching staff, distributed across six Departments: Architecture and Multimedia Gallaecia, Law, Psychology and Education, Economics and Management, Science and Technology and Tourism, Heritage and Culture.
mission & strategy
Portucalense University aims to be a global institution and recognized for quality in the different dimensions of its activity: research, teaching and transfer of knowledge. To this end, it seeks to have human resources with the highest qualifications and aims at a target audience that is not only Portuguese, but from all parts of the world.
The mission of Portucalense University is to contribute to the progress of knowledge and human development, through the production and transmission of knowledge, as well as the provision of other services to the community.
This mission is pursued through several objectives:
- Conducting research in pursuit of excellence, creativity and innovative solutions to major societal challenges;
- Promotion or participation in scientific events of national or international scope, in order to potentiate the research activity;
- Human training at the highest level, in its scientific, professional, ethical, cultural, and technical dimensions;
- Knowledge transfer to companies, public institutions and other organizations, and the provision of other services to the community;
- Continuous training and promotion of entrepreneurship;
Cultural, scientific and technical exchange with national and foreign institutions and organisms, through the mobility of students, teachers and researchers; - Carrying out educational and research programmes in partnership with other institutions, national or foreign;
- Close cooperation with Portuguese-speaking countries to carry out common training programmes, research development and service provision;
- Contribution to the social and economic development of the region where it is located and to the knowledge, defence and dissemination of its cultural and natural heritage;
- Close cooperation with companies, public institutions and other organizations to promote the employability of its graduates.
Portucalense University is guided by a set of academic and human values that define its identity and promote its efficiency:
- Intellectual freedom, providing an environment of creativity and innovation and fostering change and adaptation;
- Academic integrity, guaranteeing intellectual and moral independence to teaching and research;
- Diversity, promoting an awareness that values tolerance, mutual respect and difference;
- Excellence, pursuing the highest standards of teaching and research, based on a management model oriented to the valorisation of merit;
- Social responsibility, fostering a collective consciousness of commitment to social welfare in its social, environmental and cultural dimensions;
- Learning for life, promoting individual effort and continuous appreciation;
- Management efficiency, through the permanent evaluation of the university’s activities and of its units and services. Each member of the university is responsible for the continuous improvement of the Quality Management System, making this a responsibility shared by all.
Educational, scientific and cultural project
The educational, scientific and cultural project of Portucalense University aims to make compatible the understanding and mastery of the intellectual instruments of the areas of knowledge to which the university is dedicated with a permanent attitude of intellectual curiosity, creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship. Therefore, the students’ autonomy and capacity to solve new problems is stimulated, preparing them for collective work, for taking the initiative, for living with risk, for business creation and for leadership in a global context.
This project is carried out within a framework of international reference, based on the centrality of research and its close articulation with teaching, the transfer of knowledge and the provision of various services to the community. The internationalization strategy means that a large part of the university’s activities will be carried out in English.
Portucalense University privileges, in all its activities, cooperation with other institutions, national or foreign. Partnerships are intended to create scale, generate synergies and increase efficiency.
The following are the areas of competence that guide the training offer, research, knowledge transfer and the provision of other services to the community: Law and Jurisprudence Studies; International Relations; Economics; Business Sciences; Computer Science; Psychology; Education Sciences; Culture and Humanities; Tourism; Hospitality.
Training is organized so that, in the 1st cycle, students receive university training in broader areas of knowledge, and in the subsequent cycles they may opt for more specific training. To this end, the scientific research component already present in the 1st cycle is reinforced in the 2nd cycle, and the 3rd cycle must develop the students’ research capabilities in order to enable them to successfully contribute to the advancement of scientific knowledge.
Portucalense University sees itself as a centre of scientific production of excellence and creator of value for the community. Research is guided by a culture of epistemological and methodological rigor, in order to contribute to the advancement of the frontier of knowledge. Starting from the current state of scientific research, the university and its research units, through the personal performance of its researchers, actively participate in the development of innovative epistemological and methodological solutions. At the organisational level, priority is given to collaborative research in projects and lines of work with national and foreign researchers and research centres, promoting interdisciplinarity, multidisciplinarity and globalisation of knowledge.
The university is dedicated to the transfer of knowledge and the provision of various services to the community, actively collaborating with companies, public institutions and other organizations. This activity is based on the interaction between supply and demand.
More information about Universidade Portucalense, including information on institutional accreditation, can be found on the DGES-Direção Geral do Ensino Superior website.
