Technical Higher Education students ask AR to keep tuition

A The National Federation of Students' Associations of Polytechnic Higher Education (FNAEESP) today expressed concern about the thawing of the value of tuition provided for in the proposed State Budget, and asks the Assembly of the Republic to keep the freeze.

In a statement, the federation states that the “value in question may seem low, but that indexing the bribe to inflation [as foreseen in the OE proposal] creates an automatic rise mechanism and paves the way for successive increases”.

According to the proposal of the State Budget for 2027 delivered on Thursday, the Government will thaw, from the school year 2027/2028, the value of tuition fees, which have not changed since 2020 and will be

In the statement, the federation expressed its deep concern at the government's proposal to unfreeze the maximum tuition fee for undergraduates and Professional Higher Technical Courses (CteSP), updating it to inflation from the next school year, considering that it will “increase the expenditure of studying in higher education”.

The Federation recalls that “accommodation, food, transport and materials weigh more and more on the budget of students and families, and already condition the choices of many young people”.

For the Federation, the Government proposal can be particularly penalising for polytechnic higher education students.

“ These courses have played an important role as promoting lifelong learning and as a gateway to higher education. By imprisoning this door, the objective of equity in the access that the government itself places in the Budget is contradicted”, the Federation said.

According to the Federation, “politechnique universities, chronically underfunded against universities, need more public funding, not more burdens on families”.

Thus, FNAESP calls on the Assembly of the Republic to maintain, like what it did in the State Budget for 2026, the freezing of the maximum bribe in the 697 euros for undergraduates and CTeSP in the school year 2027/2028.

“ It also calls on the Government to reverse the planned cut in Higher Education, Science and Innovation and strengthen sector funding. The sustainability of the system cannot be based on the efforts of families”, is underlined in the note.

The measure is contained in the proposal for a law submitted by the Government in Parliament on Thursday, which provides that, in the school year 2027/2028, the maximum amount of tuition fees in undergraduate degrees and CTeSPs is equal to the ceiling fixed at 2026/2027 (EUR 697), plus the average rate of variation of the Consumer Price Index (IPC), without housing, recorded in 2026.

The same updating rule applies to master's degrees which are indispensable to the exercise of a professional activity or to cases where the requirement of a master's degree is defined in the statutes of professional orders.

The other masters and doctorates “should take into account the actual cost of training”, says the executive proposal.

The government had already proposed the defrosting of tuition fees last year under the OE2026, but the intention was halted by the opposition that approved, in the discussion in specialty, a proposal from the PS that kept the maximum value of EUR 697.