According to the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education, 411,995 students were enrolled in the last academic year, "a new historic high".

Compared to the previous year, there are 15,000 more students, representing an increase of 4 percent, which is also a record: in this case, the highest annual growth rate in the last decade.

“It also shows a growing and continuous evolution of the expansion cycle of higher education verified since 2015, a year in which the number of students enrolled in Higher Education was less than 350,000”, adds the note from the ministry.

Until now, the maximum number of students enrolled in higher education had been registered in the 2010/2011 school year, with around 403,000 students.

Other data from the Directorate-General for Higher Education (DGES) shows that eight out of 10 university students are enrolled in public higher education, but in percentage terms the increase compared to the previous year was slightly higher in private (5 percent in comparison with 4 percent in the public).

With 16 percent of those enrolled, master's degrees also grew last year and the number of PhD students rose above the average (8 percent), also recording a new historical high, with 23,544 enrolled.

The number of students who chose Portugal to attend higher education after completing secondary school abroad has also been increasing in recent years, reaching 47,000 in the last year.

“These students grow 179 percent compared to 2015 and 7 percent compared to the previous year, which is particularly relevant in a year marked by strong restrictions on international mobility”, stresses the ministry.