Welcome to the Official page of the Presidency of the Portuguese Republic

I am very pleased to bring together here, today, the representatives of the centenary Lisbon Faculty of Law and a group of academicians, to emphasize and distinguish the relevant services rendered the Country.

Through each one of those honoured here, I express public recognition to the Higher Education and Research Institutions for the work and merit evinced at the service of education, research and economic and social development.

Four decades of democracy brought about remarkable changes in many features of the lives of the Portuguese, but none is indeed as marking as that which took place in Education and Learning.

The comparison of the numbers of those registered in higher education and of graduates, as well as the number of master and doctorate degrees attributed between the beginnings of the 80’s and 2014 well show the size of the progress occurred in Portugal.

The level and quality of scientific production have shown a growing international prominence, proven by the large number of prizes and financings obtained in highly competitive environments.

There are already several Portuguese universities that comprise the highest standards within the cadre of international assessment.

We can state that the action of the Universities and of the Polytechnic Institutes is one of the most important factors for innovation and wealth creation and that, as such, it assumes an essential role in the Country’s development strategy.

For this path to be consolidated there is need of resources, autonomy and decision and management capability, such that institutions may maintain a duly qualified and mustered faculty, with scientific production that evinces excellence amongst the best.

Our universities must be prepared to answer the challenges of growth in demand for higher education and for the internationalization of education and research, competing with its European counterparts for financing and for the capturing of talents wherever they can be found.

It is equally necessary to render particular regard to the challenge of effective cooperation with companies for the transfer and disclosure of knowledge.

The Country’s current and future progress will largely result from the linkage between education, research and innovation, in order to encourage growth of wealth, at the same time as knowledge is disseminated, skills are strengthened and social inclusion is promoted.

It is in the converging of these factors that the great pillars of the knowledge society are found, and in which the universities have a key role to perform, in close cooperation with companies and with the whole of society. It is crucial to reinforce the rate and the intensity of this convergence.

The capability to detect, nourish and develop talents is at the centre of the educational function. It is fundamental that this capability is increasingly greater, in order that youths may reach their due valuing which they covet in all fairness.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is through learning and knowledge, as well as the recognition of merit and talent, that the trend to perpetuate inequalities based on each one’s social origins is combated.

It is thus fundamental that innovation, together with education, becomes an effective tool for the reduction of social asymmetries.

Higher education is important, but above all it is a starting point; it is no more, as surely is known to a great number of graduates, an end that, once reached, solely results as a symbol of personal and professional fulfilment.

Lifelong learning, an area and a process in which higher education institutions are called upon to perform a determining role, aiding the diversification of their offer, is thus increasingly relevant.

Standing out in this field is the large increment in post-graduate courses, either to acquire new academic degrees, or to update the knowledge of qualified professionals, an area in which business schools have obtained significant recognition in worldwide rankings.

It should equally be stressed, in this picture of worldwide increasing demand, that promotion cannot be limited only to technical skills, but must also include ethics, both of these inseparable as distinctive traits of quality and of the intrinsic value of professional performance in any area of knowledge.

In spite of the evolution recorded in these 40 years of democracy, Portugal continues to be one of the OECD countries with a greater proportion of young adults with lower than secondary qualifications, which, in turn, are associated with high rates of unemployment.

Universities and Polytechnic Institutes have already developed strategies to attract a new public, namely adults who precociously abandoned the learning system.

This is a path that must be continued, in order that those who were unable to benefit in due time from a secondary education may now achieve it, specializing in areas compatible with the labour market.

I have endeavoured, throughout several Routes and countrywide visits, to bring visibility to the result of this symbiosis of education, research and innovation, within a framework of appreciation of human resources, job creation and strengthening of the competitiveness of our economy.

For this reason I have decided to distinguish today individualities who have stood out in education, research and scientific production, as well as one of the most prestigious institutions in our Country, the Lisbon Faculty of Law, the home of academic quality, of intellectual freedom and of scientific rigour which, throughout its more than one hundred years of service, brought out men and women of great value.

Due to the valuable contribution of this institution and of these individualities for the training of generations, for the Country’s economic and social development, for Portugal’s prominence in the World, but also for greater integration and social cohesion, it is with the greatest relish that I will impose the insignia of the different grades of the Military Order of Sant’Iago da Espada and of the Order of Public Education.