Polytechnic (Portugal)

The polytechnic is one of the two sub-systems of higher education of Portugal, the other being the university education. The polytechnic higher education provides a more practical training and is profession-oriented, while the university higher education has a strong theoretical basis and is highly research-oriented. Besides this, the polytechnic institutions only grant licentiate's and master's degrees, with the granting of doctor's degrees being reserved to the university institutions.

The polytechnic education focus in programs in the fields of education, management, technology, health and agriculture, although programs in other fields, like arts, sports, journalism, tourism and nautical science also exist. Polytechnics are the sole providers of higher education programs in some fields like nursery, accounting and kindergarten educators. By other side, polytechnics do not have programs in law, medicine, architecture and other fields which are reserved for the university institutions.

The polytechnics emerged in the 1980s, through the transformation of already existing non-university higher education schools of teachers and agriculture, at the same time that entirely new schools in other fields were also created. Latter, other higher education schools, like the higher institutes of engineering, the higher institutes of accounting and administration, the higher schools of nursery and the Nautical School were also integrated in the polytechnic education.

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