Ombudsman’s proposal to regulate special schemes for access to higher education accepted

The Ombudsman welcomes the alteration to the regulation of the special regimes for access and entry into higher education, implemented through article 3 of Decree-Law no. 11/2020, of 2 April, which makes it possible to overcome a situation of injustice previously reported to the Government.

The lack of articulation of the timetable established for the formalisation of applications under the special regimes with the timetable for national secondary education exams was in question.

This position was based on the knowledge of the specific case of a federated athlete with high competition status, unable to present, within the deadline, his candidacy for higher education under the special regimes, because the date on which he was informed of the result of the review of the national examination score, going from negative to positive, was after the end of that deadline.

It was concluded that this entailed different treatment of applicants in identical circumstances, benefiting from the same special access regime:

(a) on the one hand, those who obtained the conclusion of their assessment process without the need to re-examine the evidence and were in time to be able to formalise their application and

b) on the other hand, those who, without prejudice to correcting the error in the classification of their exams, were prevented from applying for a position in higher education by mere disarticulation between schedules issued by two state departments – dependent on two Ministries.

The solution now enshrined in the law has thus welcomed the suggestion of this State body, through the provision of a safeguard clause which allows that, even after the deadline for the formalisation of application under the special regimes has passed, this will always be feasible, within a certain additional period, after the disclosure of a review of an examination note that provides conditions for its submission.

This amendment shall take effect from the next application for the school year 2020/2021.

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