Restyling the higher education landscape: regional (a)symmetries across Portugal

Abstract

This work studies the disparities found in higher education institutions across Portugal - in terms of geographical location, being polytechnics institutes or universities, and operating in the private or public sector - in relation to their offering of 1st, 2nd and 3rd cycle study programmes and scientific areas. Bearing in mind that, on the one hand, any education institution must adapt to the surrounding population, and that, on the other hand, the population also ends up adapting to the existing educational offer, there is always some synergy between the characteristics of higher education institutions and local population/social context. Therefore, it is of surmount importance to characterize the educational system and verify the presence of asymmetries, by evaluation of the way it relates and is related to the physical and social setting. At an initial stage of the accreditation process, HEI submit an accreditation proposal to national accreditation agency. In the description of each study programme for evaluation, HEI must describe what are the “intended learning outcomes” they expected students will achieve at the end of a specific period of learning. Data analysis focused on information included in this question, and which is limited to 1000 characters. All proposal of study programs submitted to accreditation, from 2009 to 2014, were examined (n = 2961). A content analysis was carried out using the MAXQDA software for qualitative data analysis (version 12). Adopting a theoretical thematic analysis approach, instead of a data-driven option (Braun & Clarke, 2006), a competence matrix of technical and generic skills were identified. Based on a descriptive analysis of the data, it was possible to cross-tabulate several variables and to do a thorough discussion, highlighting the influence of different internal aspects of the Portuguese Higher Education System. This data-based reflection is a contribute for future works aiming to understand the underlying dynamics behind such asymmetries. Knowing the regional asymmetries may provide opportunities to find innovative solutions that foster education on disadvantaged regions.