Degree significance and accreditation
Schools that adhered to the Bologna process maintained the degree names but their significance changed. In ascending order of importance:
Degrees
Bacharelato (Bachelor's degree) - title: Bacharel - abbreviation: none or Bach.
Non-Bologna: Three-year course in a polytechnic
Bologna: not used
Licenciatura (Academic License) - title: Licenciado (popular: Doutor or Engenheiro) - abbreviation: Lic. (popular: Dr. or Eng.)
Non-Bologna: Four- to six-year course in a university, or a Bacharelato complemented with one or two extra years in a polytechnic (called licenciatura bietápica, meaning dual-stage license) or university
Bologna: three- to six-year course in a university or polytechnic.
Pós-Graduação or Especialização (Postgraduate degree]]) - no specific title
Usually one year of specific study for holders of a Licenciatura or Mestrado.
Mestrado (Master's degree) - title: Mestre
Non-Bologna: advanced degree in a specific scientific field, indicating capacity for conducting practical research. Courses last two to four semesters, including lectures and the preparation and discussion of an original dissertation. It is only open to those who have obtained a grade average of 14/20 or higher in the Licenciatura course. Those with less than 14/20 may also be eligible for a Mestrado course after analysis of the curriculum by the university.
Bologna: Licenciatura complemented with one or two extra years in a polytechnic or university (equivalent to Non-Bologna Licenciatura)
Doutorado (Doctorate) - used in front of holder's name: Doutor
The Doutorado is conferred by universities to those who have passed the Doctorate examinations and have defended a thesis, usually to pursue a teaching career at university level. There is no fixed period to prepare for the Doctorate examinations. Candidates must hold a degree of Mestrado or Licenciatura (or a legally equivalent qualification) and have competences and merit that are recognised by the university.
Agregação (Agrégation) - used in front of holder's name: Professor Doutor
This is the highest qualification reserved to holders of the Doutor degree. It requires the capacity to undertake high level research and special pedagogical competence in a specific field. It is awarded after passing specific examinations.
Accreditation
During many years (at least during most of the 20th century to the 2000s), a graduate in Portugal used to have a compulsory four to five years course (an exception included medicine, with a six years course) known as licenciatura which was granted exclusively by universities. Only graduates having the licenciatura diploma exclusively conferred by the universities were full capacitated to develop its professional activity in its respective field (like engineering, or secondary school teaching) and were universally recognised and regulated by its Ordem (the highest professional association authority) and/or the State.
Other higher education courses offering a three years bacharelato degree that the newly created polytechnic institutes started to award in the 1970s and 1980s, like the technical engineering courses or teaching courses, had its own regulation scheme and were not recognized by the respective Ordens Profissionais in the field or by the State to perform the same professional activities university's licenciados were habilitated for (for instance, technical engineers did not belong to the Ordem of engineers and were awarded a limited range of engineering projects, and most teachers with the 3 years polytechnic degrees were not able to teach school students after the 6th grade).
Degree significance and accreditation
Schools that adhered to the Bologna process maintained the degree names but their significance changed. In ascending order of importance:
Continued Higher education In Portugal.... Part-3 Part-1
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