Portugal

Ordem dos Engenheiros
Av. Sidónio Pais, n.º 4 E
1050-212 Lisboa, Portugal
Telephone: 213132600
Fax: 213524632
E-mail: secretariageral@ordemdosengenheiros.pt
Website: www.ordemengenheiros.pt

Accreditation Process:
The Ordem dos Engenheiros (OE) is the entity responsible for the accreditation of engineers and engineering courses in Portugal. The accreditation process for engineering courses exempts candidates, possessing an accredited course degree, of such examination. According to the OE, candidate examination from unaccredited courses has a success rate ranging from 50% to 30%, depending on the engineering field. Over three hundred engineering degrees are awarded in Portugal by public university, public polytechnic, and private institutions, however, accredited courses account for only about one hundred.

Today, after many reforms and changes in higher education in 1998 to the 2000s, the formal differences between polytechnic and university licenciatura degrees in engineering are in general null, and due to the Bologna process both graduates should be recognized equally all across Europe. However, there are many engineering courses whose degrees are still not recognized by the Ordem dos Engenheiros (the highest Portuguese authority in accreditation of professional engineers), especially engineering courses conferred by several polytechnical institutes and many private institutions. Among the oldest recognized and most extensively accredited engineering courses in Portugal, are those engineering degrees awarded by the state-run universities. After the large 1998 - 2000s reforms and upgrades, some polytechnic engineering licenciatura degrees started to be offered by the largest state-run polytechnic institutes, have been accredited in the same way with official recognition by Ordem dos Engenheiros.

Portugal has two main systems of higher education:

• The university system, which is the oldest, has its origins in the 13th century. It is composed of thirteen public universities, one public university institute, a public open university, and several private universities and university institutes.
• The polytechnic system, that began offering higher education in the 1980s after the former industrial and commercial schools were converted into engineering and administration higher education schools (so its origins could be traced back to some earlier vocational education schools of the 19th century). It is composed of fifteen state-run polytechnic institutes, public and private non-integrated polytechnic institutions, and other similar institutions.