The Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation (MECI) will review whether changes to higher education access rules for students with disabilities have led to fewer places available for these students, the minister said this Thursday.
“There has been a change in the rules, we have to assess what the change in rules is related to and whether this somehow implies restricting the access of people with disabilities to higher education,” said Fernando Alexandre.
The Minister raised this topic after attending the opening of the International Conference of Higher Education of the Union of the Mediterranean at the Rectorate of the New University of Lisbon, acknowledging his concern about the situation revealed this Thursday by the Jornal de Notícias (JN).
According to information provided by JN, the origin of this issue is the inclusion of a technical and pedagogical report among the criteria for the candidacy of priority students, which justifies additional measures to support learning in secondary school in connection with disabilities.
In addition to the new technical and pedagogical report, students with disabilities were now required to provide a medical certificate and a school certificate.
The diary revealed that the number of special needs students entering higher education in 2023 more than halved compared to the previous year, falling from a record 440 (from 447 applications) in 2022 to just 201 (from 204 applications) . ) in 2023.
According to the Directorate General of Education and Science Statistics (DGEEC), 683 students with disabilities completed higher education in the last academic year (2022-2023), of which 85.7% were in public institutions and the rest in private higher education institutions. quotes the publication.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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