Portugal is a demographically old country that is in dire need of a diversified and complementary policy to attract human resources, consistent with our socio-demographic realities.

There are several ways to do this in Europe with the free movement of people, goods, services and capital, and in a globalized world in some of these aspects.

In order to attract people and prevent the natural temptation of our youth (and some less young people) to look for opportunities outside the country, we need a competitive and attractive economy from the very beginning in terms of wages and working conditions. promotion.

I will not dwell on the Portuguese economic context. I prefer to focus on one of the most effective ways to attract qualified talent – higher education offers. By creating conditions for students from the European Union, as well as from third countries, especially those with the easiest ability to adapt culturally and linguistically, from Brazil, PALOP, Colombia, Venezuela, Latin America in general, find in our country campus value-quality, able to become an alternative to study, social and cultural roots and possible creation in order to fulfill life projects.

To this end, we need modern legislation with open access to higher education that promotes a competitive, competitive and attractive offer of higher education in European and global terms.

We cannot continue to have a closed, almost Napoleonic system of higher education in terms of access, opening and closing of higher education institutions (HEIs), with little or no autonomy in major aspects, without scoring rankings and with admission criteria based on closed number in the style of the 70s of the last century.

Unfortunately, we are far from what is desired in terms of funding HEIs, namely giving candidates the freedom to access and choose between public, private or cooperative education, depending on the identified or perceived quality of the various HEIs. To achieve this goal, it would be important that funding accompanies the student and not accompanies the institutions…

And that candidates with merit, potential and ability, demonstrated by the relevant evaluation criteria, are not left behind, as is often the case, because closed number that’s how they define it.

Since such freedom of choice still seems like a mirage, an immediate and fundamental step would be to provide private and cooperative higher education, not funded by the taxpayer as a whole, with more freedom to attract foreign students, thereby promoting more innovation in the education offered. courses, undergraduate and postgraduate, as well as in doctoral programsmastersspecialization courses and continuing education.

In this regard, the proposals of the Liberal Initiative to modernize existing legislation, which were presented to Parliament last July, state the obvious: “Portugal is a country that attracts many foreign students and young people and which has registered an increase in the number of students in higher education institutions, either through mobility and exchange programs, or through the general access mode. The state must control the quality of education provided in Portugal, but it cannot impose restrictions on the enrollment of students in private institutions.”

As the Portuguese state theoretically recognizes, through the Decree-Law on installed capacity in educational institutions, the increase of new revenues of its own, which can be applied to improve the quality and diversification of the education provided and have a positive impact on the economy”…

This future discussion seems to me elementary relevant, and I want to believe that one day it will deserve the attention of the legislator and various political parties;

If this is the case and in coordination, then it is necessary to meet and implement good intentions that are essentially not being implemented, allowing private and cooperative educational institutions to significantly strengthen the mechanisms for attracting and retaining foreign students, popularizing the country and our culture. , offering a service with economic benefits and great added value, as recognized in the innovative offer of higher education. Following successful examples in the UK, the Netherlands, the USA, Singapore, Eastern European countries and other countries.

Does anyone think that the best universities in the world are exclusively for citizens of the countries they are based in?

Our young people today are open, pragmatic, cosmopolitan and take full advantage of the opportunities available to them in the European Union for mobility, automatic recognition of qualifications and professional practice.

They know that we are a full part of the European Union and that the horizon is European, not just Portuguese.

They do not allow themselves to be limited by the limited, withdrawn, suspicious, angry vision that is typical of those for whom “proudly alone” is still a slogan.

Healthy, restless, they are looking for the best conditions for professional studies and rewards. But they also follow the calls for self-assertion, for a career, for lifelong learning.

Retaining our youth is related to the economy, yes. And also to offer training in areas that are not available in Portugal, in quantitative and qualitative terms.

This gap forces many young people to study medicine, for example, in other countries of the European Union, the Czech Republic, Romania, Hungary and other countries. Most do not return to Portugal…

The training of qualified personnel is not a matter of national central planning. On the contrary, it is an open system of communicating ships in which Portugal must contribute, become competitive and deal with European and global cross-border mobility.

Today, in some national higher education institutions, we already have more than 40% of students from France, Italy, Spain and other countries, both inside and outside the European area, in preparatory courses.

It is necessary to expand these indicators and stop thinking that training is reserved exclusively for Portugal. It doesn’t make sense, as you can see from the day-to-day arguments that have been going on for several years now.

If our universities do not adapt, if they do not provide an abundant, consistent and quality supply, demand will go everywhere, inside and outside the EU.

The home of higher education is no longer only in Portugal, that’s for sure! The common home is European, global.