António Sousa Pereira, the new president of the Council of Rectors of Portuguese Universities (CRUP), and António Fontainhas Fernandes, in the photo, outgoing president of the same body, defended, on Tuesday, October 20, in Parliament, that the Plan of Recovery and Resilience can be an “excellent opportunity” to modernize universities.
The Plan is sparse in references to universities, it is more focused on research, but it is not closed. Nothing is lost, for now. “We are still in time to better specify some of our concerns, namely with regard to accommodation. It is noted that there will be a large investment by the country in the future in social housing, but accommodation for higher education institutions, whether polytechnic or university, is not clear ”, said António Fontainhas Fernandes, dean of the University of Trás-os-Montes. os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD), which recently passed the CRUP portfolio.
António Sousa Pereira, the new head of the Rectors' Council, added: “We would very much like to be able to incorporate some solutions to serious problems, such as university residences, which need a background. Another is a program that, in some way, replaces what used to be the PIDAC (Central Administration Investment and Expenditure Program), which disappeared about ten years ago and has not been replaced ”. At this moment, justified António Sousa Pereira, also rector of the University of Porto: “there are installations that are beginning to show clear signs of fatigue”. The consequences are evident: “the institutions' own competitiveness is beginning to decrease a lot due to the lack of a real instrument that allows their modernization”.
The Council of Rectors of Portuguese Universities (CRUP) and the Coordinating Council of Higher Polytechnic Institutes were heard this October 20 on the current and future financing situation of higher education institutions included in the Government's proposals within the framework of the State Budget for 2021 at the request of the PSD.
The rectors told the deputies that from the point of view of the bribes, the Government is fulfilling what it agreed with the higher education institutions. He paid the first tranche in July and the second is scheduled for November. There is no reason to question that this is not the case, said Fontainhas Fernandes.
Regarding social action, he clarified that the situation has to be viewed with some care, because there are differences and the differences have to do with the institutions themselves. "There are institutions that have a greater number of displaced students, institutions with a greater number of scholarship holders ... the asymmetries are greater and so are the needs".
The outgoing president of CRUP noted a decrease in the income of institutions caused by the reduction in the number of beds now available in homes due to the adaptation they had to make to the rules of the Directorate-General for Health. In the specific case of institutions that have a social action of direct administration, that is, that do not have concession companies, the fall in revenue “was frightening and calls into question the end of the year”. Fontainhas Fernandes said that both the tutelage - Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education, led by Manuel Heitor, assisted by João Sobrinho Teixeira - and the Institute of Financial Management were alerted and are aware, saying that the “IGF is doing a survey of needs so that by the end of the year we can find a solution ”.
The Covid-19 pandemic has increased costs at universities, especially in those with medical education. António Sousa Pereira said what is needed is above all to clarify things and explained that the Secretary of State for Health said, recently, that nothing could be required of students that was not required of doctors working in hospitals, this means that the Ministry of Health made available to finance the PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) that students would use during their presence in hospitals. But there are hospitals that guarantee the equipment and others that are presenting accounts to universities and polytechnics. It is necessary that the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education “clarify the misunderstanding in order to have a uniform procedure, and in my interpretation there was already this manifestation of the Ministry of Health's intention to participate in the equipment costs ”, stressed the president of CRUP.
António Sousa Pereira, the new president of the Council of Rectors of Portuguese Universities (CRUP), and António Fontainhas Fernandes, in the photo, outgoing president of the same body, defended, on Tuesday, October 20, in Parliament, that the Plan of Recovery and Resilience can be an “excellent opportunity” to modernize universities.
The Plan is sparse in references to universities, it is more focused on research, but it is not closed. Nothing is lost, for now. “We are still in time to better specify some of our concerns, namely with regard to accommodation. It is noted that there will be a large investment by the country in the future in social housing, but accommodation for higher education institutions, whether polytechnic or university, is not clear ”, said António Fontainhas Fernandes, dean of the University of Trás-os-Montes. os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD), which recently passed the CRUP portfolio.
António Sousa Pereira, the new head of the Rectors' Council, added: “We would very much like to be able to incorporate some solutions to serious problems, such as university residences, which need a background. Another is a program that, in some way, replaces what used to be the PIDAC (Central Administration Investment and Expenditure Program), which disappeared about ten years ago and has not been replaced ”. At this moment, justified António Sousa Pereira, also rector of the University of Porto: “there are installations that are beginning to show clear signs of fatigue”. The consequences are evident: “the institutions' own competitiveness is beginning to decrease a lot due to the lack of a real instrument that allows their modernization”.
The Council of Rectors of Portuguese Universities (CRUP) and the Coordinating Council of Higher Polytechnic Institutes were heard this October 20 on the current and future financing situation of higher education institutions included in the Government's proposals within the framework of the State Budget for 2021 at the request of the PSD.
The rectors told the deputies that from the point of view of the bribes, the Government is fulfilling what it agreed with the higher education institutions. He paid the first tranche in July and the second is scheduled for November. There is no reason to question that this is not the case, said Fontainhas Fernandes.
Regarding social action, he clarified that the situation has to be viewed with some care, because there are differences and the differences have to do with the institutions themselves. "There are institutions that have a greater number of displaced students, institutions with a greater number of scholarship holders ... the asymmetries are greater and so are the needs".
The outgoing president of CRUP noted a decrease in the income of institutions caused by the reduction in the number of beds now available in homes due to the adaptation they had to make to the rules of the Directorate-General for Health. In the specific case of institutions that have a social action of direct administration, that is, that do not have concession companies, the fall in revenue “was frightening and calls into question the end of the year”. Fontainhas Fernandes said that both the tutelage - Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education, led by Manuel Heitor, assisted by João Sobrinho Teixeira - and the Institute of Financial Management were alerted and are aware, saying that the “IGF is doing a survey of needs so that by the end of the year we can find a solution ”.
The Covid-19 pandemic has increased costs at universities, especially in those with medical education. António Sousa Pereira said what is needed is above all to clarify things and explained that the Secretary of State for Health said, recently, that nothing could be required of students that was not required of doctors working in hospitals, this means that the Ministry of Health made available to finance the PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) that students would use during their presence in hospitals. But there are hospitals that guarantee the equipment and others that are presenting accounts to universities and polytechnics. It is necessary that the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education “clarify the misunderstanding in order to have a uniform procedure, and in my interpretation there was already this manifestation of the Ministry of Health's intention to participate in the equipment costs ”, stressed the president of CRUP.