Portugal Universities End Second Application Round With Thousands of Empty Seats

For anyone schooling children in Portugal—or considering a move that coincides with university age—this week brought a quiet but consequential milestone: the national second-round of university admissions closed with more places than candidates, and a rulebook tweaked in March has tilted the field a little further in favour of international families.

What just happened?

Officially, the portal for the Concurso Nacional de Acesso stopped accepting applications on Wednesday night. By the cut-off, 17 114 hopefuls had pressed “submit” for 15 923 remaining seats across public universities and polytechnics. The Directorate-General for Higher Education (DGES) will post results on 14 September, and successful applicants must enrol between 15 and 17 September. Any vacancies left over feed straight into a third and final round later in the month.

Why the numbers look upside-down

Five years ago Portugal worried about a shortage of desks; now it worries about a shortage of students. Demography is one culprit—birth-rates slipped below replacement level in the 1990s—but insiders flag rising living costs, a bruising housing market, and tougher high-school exam rules introduced in 2024. Those changes require at least two national exams to enter higher education and three to finish secondary school, nudging some pupils toward job-ready vocational tracks or study abroad. The result: the first application round in July attracted 49 595 candidates for nearly 56 000 openings, leaving an unprecedented 11 513 vacancies to be recycled into the current phase.

An opening for international families

The imbalance is not just a curiosity; it is widening the window for non-Portuguese residents. Under Decree-Law 20/2025, teenagers who completed secondary school in Portugal—regardless of their parents’ residency status—may now apply under the domestic quota instead of the pricier “international student” regime. Separately, universities were authorised to add 86 medical seats specifically for foreign nationals, an attempt to plug long-term gaps in the national health service. Taken together, the tweaks mean that expat families can access more courses at standard tuition (roughly €697 per year in most public faculties), while those who do not yet qualify for local status will still find a broader range of dedicated slots.

Key dates—and the paperwork expats often miss

Before celebrating, mark the calendar and assemble the right documents. DGES publishes results on 14 September (log-in with your Número de Identificação Fiscal). Successful candidates have a three-day enrolment window ending 17 September; miss it and the seat is lost. If you are filing under the international track, double-check that your high-school diploma is apostilled and translated and that you have proof of Portuguese language proficiency where required. The last-chance third round opens 23 September and publishes outcomes on 1 October.

The broader picture: Portugal’s academic magnetism in flux

University rectors insist the system is becoming more “efficient” because 90 % of applicants now land one of their top three choices, yet the spectacle of empty classrooms in the interior contrasts sharply with oversubscribed programmes in Lisbon and Porto. Economists warn that if the youth drain continues, regional polytechnics—in Bragança, Castelo Branco or Guarda—may struggle to justify entire departments. For foreign students, especially those eyeing Engineering, Computer Science or Education, the trend translates into generous odds of admission and, outside the big cities, cheaper accommodation. Whether the pendulum swings back will depend on birth-rates, housing policy and how welcoming Portugal remains to newcomers in the years ahead.