Researching higher education in Portugal

ABSTRACT

Despite relatively recent, higher education has evolved into a consolidated field of study. This paper examines how this field evolved in Portugal. The goal was to understand when it first appeared, how it evolved over time, which scientific areas was it associated with, and what have been its main objects of study. Tight’s classification of objects of study was used to inspire content analysis, which was used to systematise information on doctoral theses in higher education held or recognised in Portugal between 1970 and 2019. Descriptive statistics completed this analysis in accordance with the study objectives. The study findings reveal that the number of theses on higher education-related themes or subthemes has increased over time, particularly in the last decade. Two major clusters of objects of study were also identified, one more relevant, focusing on Teaching and Learning and Students and the other, less representative, focusing on System Policies, Quality, Institutional Management, and Academics. Moreover, findings suggest that research in higher education in Portugal is focused on the ‘usual’ scientific areas, namely social sciences, and education. Despite some limitations, the study adds significantly to the understanding of higher education as a field of study, opening-up new avenues for future research.

KEYWORDS:

• Higher education
• research
• field of study
• doctoral theses
• Portugal

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by national funds through the FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., under the scope of the project UIDB/00757/2020.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 FOS main fields: natural sciences, engineering and technology, medical sciences, agricultural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. See 43 subfields at: https://www.oecd.org/science/inno/38235147.pdf.

2 A non-systematic online survey aiming to identify research units in the field of higher education was conducted in February 2021, using the information provided both by the Portuguese research funding agency (Foundation for Science and Technology – FCT) regarding the latest assessment results of research units (https://www.fct.pt/apoios/unidades/avaliacoes/2017/docs/Education.pdf) and the institutional sites of the research units appearing to be conducting research in the higher education field: NIPE: https://www.eeg.uminho.pt/en/investigar/nipe/Pages/aboutus.aspx); CIDTFF: https://www.ua.pt/en/cidtff; GOVCOPP: https://www.ua.pt/pt/govcopp/page/22363; UIDEF: http://www.ie.ulisboa.pt/en/research; CIIE: https://www.fpce.up.pt/ciie/?q=content/ciie-centro-de-investiga%C3%A7%C3%A3o-e-interven%C3%A7%C3%A3o-educativas; CIPES: https://www.cipes.pt/; CEBER: https://www.uc.pt/en/uid/ceber/expertise-map.

3 Other research centres may be as relevant as those examined, especially when considering the number of scientific journal publications; however, these were not the object of analysis in this paper. One explanation for the scientific production associated with other research centers could be that students complete their doctoral theses at universities other than those where they later continue to develop their higher education research.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sónia Cardoso

Sónia Cardoso is an Assistant Professor at the Lusófona University of Porto. She is an integrated researcher at CeiED - Interdisciplinary Research Centre for Education and Development of the Lusófona University and collaborates with CIPES – Centre for Research in Higher Education Policies. Her main research interests fall within fall within Higher education Policies and Institutional and Organisational Analysis, with a more recent emphasis on doctoral education. She has nearly 15 years of research experience in higher education research, including participation in both national and international research projects, a relevant number of indexed peer-reviewed international publications, as well as the co-editing of books, all in in the field of Higher Education. She is a member of CHER – Consortium for Higher Education Researchers.

Maria João Rosa

Maria João Rosa is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics, Management, Industrial Engineering and Tourism at the University of Aveiro, Portugal. She is a senior researcher at CIPES – Centre for Research in Higher Education Policies and collaborates with the GOVCOPP – Research Unit on Governance, Competitiveness and Public Policies of the University of Aveiro. Her main research topics are quality management and quality assessment in higher education institutions. Recent publications include a significant number of papers in higher education journals and the co-editing of a few international books, such as Quality Assurance in Higher Education. Contemporary Debates (2014), Cross-Border Higher Education and Quality Assurance. Commerce, the Services Directive and Governing Higher Education (2016) and European Higher Education and the Internal Market. Tensions between European Policy and National Sovereignty (2018). She is a member of EAIR – The European Higher Education Society and of CHER – Consortium for Higher Education Researchers.

Alberto Amaral

Alberto Amaral is emeritus professor at the University of Porto and member of CIPES and life member of IAUP. He was chair of the Board of CHER, vice-chair of EUA’s steering committee on institutional evaluation, and a member of EAIR and IMHE. He was the rector of University of Porto for the period 1986–1998 and president of the Portuguese higher education quality agency for the period 2009–2020. Recent publications include articles in Quality Assurance in Education, Higher Education Quarterly, Higher Education Policy, Higher Education in Europe, Studies in Higher Education and European Journal of Education. He is editor and co-editor of several books with Kluwer, Springer and Palgrave-McMillan.