Financing your Studies in Portugal

The Portuguese higher education system

Portugal has one of Europe’s oldest university traditions: the University of Coimbra was founded in 1290. Today almost the entire adult population can read and write, with an adult literacy rate of around 99 %. The system is built on two branches. Universities (universidade) focus on academic and research-oriented degrees, while polytechnic institutes (politécnico) offer more practical, profession-oriented training. Both branches exist in public and private form.

Counts of institutions vary by source and counting method, so treat them as a guide rather than an exact figure. Portugal has roughly 90 to 100 higher education institutions, of which around 31 to 34 are public. DGES-based figures point to 14 universities, 20 polytechnic institutes and 6 military or police academies on the public side. All of them follow the three-cycle Bologna structure, introduced in 2006 and fully in place from the 2009/2010 academic year: Bachelor (licenciado), Master (mestre) and Doctorate (doutor).

The system is overseen by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education (MCTES). Study programmes are accredited by the agency A3ES, and degrees are regulated through the Directorate-General for Higher Education (DGES). The public system offers over 107,000 places in Bachelor and integrated Master programmes for 2026/2027 under the general access regime, while the private sector offers 29,315 places, up about 5 % on the previous year, with the strongest growth in education, health and technology. More than 75,000 international students come to Portugal each year.

Degrees and language

There are roughly 1,161 accredited Bachelor programmes and 1,694 accredited Master programmes to choose from. Most Bachelor programmes are taught in Portuguese, and undergraduates normally have to prove Portuguese competence at B2 level on the Common European Framework (CEFR), often through the DIPLE certificate from CAPLE at the University of Lisbon. Some programmes allow conditional admission from B1. English-taught programmes are more common at Master level than at Bachelor level: at the University of Porto in 2026/2027, for example, only 2 of 64 Bachelor and integrated Master programmes were fully in English, against 17 of 195 at Master level. Across the country you can still choose from around 419 programmes taught in English. Language competence is not generally required for Master and Doctorate programmes.

Admission and application

To enter a Bachelor programme you must have completed upper secondary school (which ends at grade 12), meet the prerequisites for your programme and sit the national entrance exams. Admission runs through the central Candidatura portal, where you can rank up to six universities by preference. Applicants are ranked on their secondary school record and national exam results.

The admission mark (nota de candidatura) is a weighted combination of your secondary school average (at least 40 %) and the entrance exam (at least 45 %). Grades run on a 0 to 20 scale, and you normally need at least 10 to pass. The minimum exam score for most courses is 100 out of 200; competitive courses can demand up to 120 out of 200.

Entry to a Master programme requires a Bachelor qualification, and entry to a Doctorate requires a Master. The Ministry of Education publishes the list of available public places, the vagas, each year. Private institutions also have limited places and rank applicants by grade average. Application deadlines generally fall in September.

Among Bachelor graduates, about 24 % come from science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), 22 % from business, administration and law, and 25 % from arts, humanities and social sciences.

Recently added funding for your studies in Portugal

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What your studies cost

Tuition fees

At public universities, tuition for EU and national students is capped by law. The cap is set between 1.1 and 1.3 times the Social Support Index (Indexante dos Apoios Sociais, IAS). For 2026/2027 the maximum annual propina for a Licenciatura, a short-cycle CTeSP course or an integrated Master is €697 a year. The cap has stayed at this level since 2020/2021; parliament blocked the planned rise to €710 in the 2026 state budget. Most public universities charge the maximum. There is no legal cap on fees for stand-alone Master and Doctorate programmes, so each institution sets its own amount.

Public Master fees therefore vary widely. As a guide for 2026, expect roughly €750 to €4,000 a year at the University of Lisbon, €750 to €3,500 at Porto, €800 to €3,000 at Coimbra, €750 to €2,500 at Minho, €1,500 to €5,000 at ISCTE-IUL and €1,500 to €4,500 at Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon.

Non-EU international students pay fees set by each institution according to the real cost of the course. A typical range at Portuguese universities is about €3,000 to €7,000 a year, though single courses can cost more. At the University of Lisbon fees are commonly around €3,500 a year, rising to €7,500 for some courses and up to €18,000 for medicine. At the University of Porto each faculty sets its own fee, with reductions of up to 45 % for nationals of Portuguese-speaking (CPLP) countries. Private universities charge more: roughly €2,500 to €8,000 a year for a Bachelor and €3,000 to €8,000 for a Master.

Private institutions usually set fees by the total number of credits a student takes, and some offer discounts of up to 100 % of the lecture fees depending on a student’s marks. Most universities let you pay the propina in up to 10 monthly instalments, and some give a discount for paying in one go.

Cost of living

Portugal remains affordable by European standards, and your monthly budget depends mostly on your rent and your city. A realistic total runs from about €450 to €1,200 a month, which is roughly €5,400 to €14,400 a year. Lisbon is the most expensive at €800 to €1,200 a month, Porto sits at €600 to €900, and Coimbra is the cheapest at €450 to €700. International students in central Lisbon should budget around €1,150 to €1,400 a month.

Rent is the biggest single cost. A room in a shared flat starts at around €250 to €400 in Coimbra or Braga, €280 to €500 in Porto, and more in Lisbon, where a room in Benfica starts around €340 a month and Reboleira around €500. Subsidised places in student residences (residências) cost €200 to €400 a month, but demand is high and places are limited. When you rent privately, expect to pay a deposit of one to two months' rent plus one month in advance.

Your student ID card qualifies you for discounts on accommodation, in bookshops, supermarkets and restaurants, on mobile contracts and on public transport. Getting around is easy, with trams, trains, taxis, metros, buses and car hire, plus ferries along the coast. Buses and trains are the cheapest options. Students up to the age of 23 or 24 travel free on the monthly pass in Lisbon and Porto; in other cities a pass costs about €15 to €25.

A meal in a university canteen costs €2.80 to €4.50, so eating there keeps your food bill down. The University of Lisbon charges €2.80, and the University of Coimbra reduced its canteen meal to €2.40 from 25 August 2026. A weekly supermarket shop at Pingo Doce, Continente, Lidl or Mercadona comes to €120 to €250 a month. Lunch at a mid-range restaurant costs up to €10, and dinner up to €15, often including drinks. A bakery (padaria) or a sweet shop (pastelaria) is cheaper again, with a visit costing up to €5. Food and drink in Lisbon and Porto runs higher, at €150 to €200 a month, while Coimbra is the cheapest.

You also need student health insurance, both to live comfortably and to apply for a visa. It costs €200 to €600 a year, which is about €17 to €50 a month.

Portuguese cities lay on plenty to do between study sessions. You can visit many parks, museums and other venues free of charge until 2 p.m. at weekends.

Funding for a semester or year abroad

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How to finance your studies

State social support grants (bolsas de ação social)

The Portuguese grant system runs on need, not merit, and is managed by the DGES. The grant, or bolsa de estudo, is state social support for students who can show economic need, and it can cover the propina in full. You apply through the on-campus offices of the Social Action Services (Serviços de Ação Social, SAS) or the Social Action Office (Gabinete de Ação Social, GAS), or online at bolsas.dges.gov.pt. Your family income is assessed from the tax returns of all family members.

Grants are on a sliding scale. The annual value is the difference between a reference value (the ceiling) and the household’s income per person. The minimum grant (bolsa mínima) for 2026/2027 is €871.25 a year, which is 125 % of the maximum €697 propina, so at that level the grant works as fee relief. The grant can also cover accommodation up to a set ceiling. Grants are paid in 10 monthly instalments across the academic year, with the first instalment covering the first two months.

To qualify, you must be enrolled in at least 30 ECTS credits in an eligible programme. You also need to meet an income limit: the per-capita household income must not exceed 23 times the Social Support Index (IAS), which is around €12,354 a year for 2026/2027, with a higher limit for working students. Household movable assets must stay below 240 times the IAS, which is €128,911.20 for 2026/2027.

A new social action system applies from 2026/2027, under which the grant is calculated from the real cost of your studies and your available household income. The average annual grant rises from €1,734 to €2,660, an increase of €926 a year, or more than 50 %, and the highest grant goes to every household below the poverty line. First-year students from the first family-allowance bracket receive an incentive grant (bolsa de incentivo) worth twice the Social Support Index, which comes to €1,074.26 in 2026/2027. Students who move away for their studies and cannot get a place in a student residence receive a displacement top-up (deslocado) to cover the gap to private rent.

The application window for 2026/2027 grants runs from 14 August to 2 October 2026, with a 20-day extra window for late registrations. EU students resident in Portugal apply on the same terms as Portuguese students and must be treated equally. Non-EU international students cannot apply directly to the DGES, because the grant requires tax residence in Portugal.

Other scholarships

Beyond the state grants, there are fewer scholarships in Portugal than in some other countries. Most are funded by individual universities, some for doctoral research in a specific field, others open to any discipline and any level of study. Each university runs scholarships for its own programmes, to help both high-achieving students and those in need, so students in every field can find something.

• The Archaeology of Portugal Fellowship of the Archaeological Institute of America awards up to US$6,000 for research on Portuguese archaeology, including the Azores and Madeira. The next deadline is 1 November 2026.
• The Gulbenkian Merit Scholarships (Bolsas Gulbenkian Mérito) pay €2,000 per academic year, plus up to €2,000 once for an Erasmus+ or similar stay abroad. They are for students entering a Bachelor programme in 2026/2027 through the general access competition with an application score of at least 170 points and a household income of up to €14,000 per person; you also need proof of a DGES grant application. Applications for 2026/2027 close on 30 October 2026 at 3 p.m. (Lisbon time).

Doctoral funding

Doctoral candidates of any nationality can compete each year for a scholarship from the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). From January 2026 the monthly maintenance allowance for a doctoral scholarship in Portugal is €1,359.64; FCT also pays the propina and social security contributions on top, for up to four years. The 2026 call (applications 2 to 31 March 2026) awarded 1,600 scholarships; the next call is usually announced early in the year.

Tax relief and family allowances

Tax relief is another way to effectively recover part of your costs. Since most students in Portugal live at home, their family can claim educational expenses as a tax deduction. For the 2026 income tax return (IRS), that is 30 % of education spending up to €800 per household member, with a further €400 for the rent of a student who has moved away, to a maximum of €1,100.

Family allowances go to parents of full-time students. The student must be under 24, the family income must be under €9,000 and family assets under €100,000. Most students' families would not qualify.

Student loans

The government-backed loan scheme is the Mutual Guarantee Credit Line (Linha de Crédito com Garantia Mútua), set up under Decreto-Lei n.º 309-A/2007. You can borrow between €1,000 and €5,000 a year, up to €25,000 for a five-year course, over a usage period of one to six years. The loans come from private banks that follow government standards, and your university supports the application.

The scheme uses a mutual guarantee system: the state backs the loan, and the lender pays into a guarantee fund that repays it in the event of default. The commission for the mutual guarantee fund is 0.35 %, and the lender contributes 0.5 % of the loan amount. Interest rates are low, set at the Euro Interest Rate Swap plus a spread of at most 1.25 %, with a reduction of 0.25 % for grant holders and disadvantaged students. You pay interest only while you study and for a grace period of up to two years at the end. The loan is then repaid over 6 to 10 years.

Commercial student loans are also available, at higher rates. As a few examples from 2026: ABANCA’s Crédito Educação ran at 2.954 % plus a 4.500 % spread (for €25,000 over 72 months); Crédito Agrícola added a spread of 2.050 %; and Younited lent €1,000 to €50,000 at an annual percentage rate (APR) of 10 to 15 % and a nominal rate of 7.494 to 12.932 %.

Take-up of student loans has grown from 1.6 % of higher education students in 2004/2005 to 4.9 %, with about two thirds of those using the Mutual Guarantee line. Among the banks, Caixa Geral de Depósitos holds 47.1 % of the market, Santander 13.7 % and BCP 7.8 %. A private loan outside the scheme is possible in principle, but it would usually need a guarantor, such as a parent with an acceptable credit record, and perhaps property as security.

Who can apply as a foreign student

To be eligible for the government grant and loan schemes, you must be a legal and regular resident of Portugal. EU citizens therefore need to establish residence before applying, which is straightforward under the EU’s freedom of movement rules, and EU law prevents Portugal from treating a non-Portuguese EU citizen differently. Non-EU students generally cannot get the grant, because it requires tax residence in Portugal, though they can apply for student loans under the government scheme or an equivalent.

Student jobs

Portugal’s job market is open to students who are suitably qualified. You can look for vacancies in telecommunications and in the administrative and commercial sectors. Part-time roles as a customer care assistant, junior online marketing representative, web designer or data collector are all within reach.

Erasmus+

If you study for part of your degree abroad, Erasmus+ is the EU’s mobility programme and is open to Bachelor, Master and Doctorate students for 2 to 12 months per study cycle. It exempts you from tuition at the host university and gives you a monthly grant towards travel and living costs, with the amount set by country. The programme is worth looking into alongside the national support described above.