Measures adopted in the Council of Ministers Ad Hoc to Science – XXIII Government

Scientific research job status

Setting rules for the new statute of the scientific research profession, ensuring the promotion of scientific and academic employment, as well as professional stability for research workers who perform jobs in these institutions, including:

• strengthening the employment contract system as a base for doctoral researchers;
• Promote research professions to levels commensurate with the size of each institution;
• Performance appraisal system under conditions similar to those in ECDU and ECPDESP, with mandatory assessments every three years and reflections in terms of career progression.

The legal system for the academic job title of the complex

Updating the legal system for aggregation, after about 15 years from the date of its entry into force, namely:

• adequacy of the system for the increased mobility of teachers and researchers, by providing for the recognition of equivalent pools and degrees held in foreign institutions;
• the limitation of the restrictions, both for candidates and for members of the jury—the latter mostly outside the institutions—associated with the mandatory intervals between examinations;
• extending the possibility of a conference call in public exams by members of the jury;
• Simplifying aspects related to legal deposit.

Access and admission systems in higher educations

the) public access system:

• change the application score calculation formula;
• Increasing the number of entrance exams required in the general access system to 2 to 3 exams, to be determined by higher education institutions;
• abolition of the legal possibility of transferring vacancies from private competitions to the public access system, except in the case of medicine;
• Create the possibility of issuing the order that defines the guidelines and limits for the determination of vacancies for the public order to be multi-year.

B) Special competition for access, by graduates, to the medical course:

• The use of available vacancies in medicine in public higher education institutions is maximized, ensuring that static and unoccupied vacancies are transferred by holders of a bachelor’s degree to the national access competition;

w) Special systems for access and admission to higher education

• It updates the legal framework for private schemes for access to higher education, which has not changed practically in the past two decades, with the aim of clarifying the rules for classification and placement of candidates, updating the administrative process for applications and clarifying eligibility requirements for each of the schemes.

Dr) Special contests

• Establishing priorities in the placement of students for candidates benefiting from school social work, and expanding the measures already adopted for candidacy for the National Access Competition;
• The classification criteria are determined by the legally and legislatively competent body of the institution, which may prioritize the filling of vacancies for candidates with disabilities, immigrants, family members living with them, Portuguese grandchildren, students benefiting from social work at the school and candidates from the area of ​​territorial influence of the higher education institution;
• Extending the number of vacancies for candidates over 23 years old

Recognition of academic certificates and higher education diplomas awarded by foreign higher education institutions

• The conditions under which automatic recognition of academic degrees can be carried out in addition to the specific recognition are expanded, allowing the arbitral tribunals for functional recruitment competitions to carry out the specific recognition of foreign degrees and diplomas of the level, objectives and nature of the doctor’s degree
• An exceptional system is created that will accelerate the recognition of the academic degree for foreign doctors interested in working for the National Health Service (SNS), in the context of the agreements between the Portuguese State and the countries of origin. This system is conditional on the conditions determined by a decision of the members of the government responsible for the fields of science and technology, higher education and health.

Teaching and research staff system in private higher education institutions

With this new system, it aims to:

• Ensure the professional stability of teaching and research staff by establishing rules for the composition of the professional faculty and by considering those who hold contracts for an indefinite period as professional staff;
• Ensuring greater integration between higher education and scientific research activities, as the job content of all members includes the development of research and teaching activities, with flexibility in managing workloads, within the limits prescribed by law;
• Encouraging the functional integration of PhDs currently appointed on a fixed-term basis under the Scientific Employment Incentive Programme, and stimulating the development of research activities;
• allowing integrated management of human resources with the same broadly overlapping qualifications and functions;
• Ensure that performance appraisal systems are in place.
• To make limits on the number of weekly class hours more flexible, attributed to each professor or researcher, allowing for full assignment of teaching or research activities for specific periods of time;
• Adapting fixed-term recruitment mechanisms to ensure that guest lecturers are effective individuals who carry out their main professional activity outside of an academic context, specifying that they cannot be appointed on a fixed-term basis if they develop a full-time teaching activity;
• The value of collective bargaining.