Study in Portugal: Admission, Cost, Visa and Scholarships (2027)

Portugal admits non-EU students to its public universities through a legal route of its own, the International Student Statute, created by Decree-Law 36/2014 and amended since. Under it a student who is not a Portuguese or EU national applies through a special call with its own quota of places, separate from the national access system Portuguese students use, and pays a fee each university sets according to the real cost of the course rather than the low national rate. A 2025 amendment, Decree-Law 20/2025, also made clear that nationals of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway are not international students for this purpose.

The single fact that decides most applications is language. Bachelor's and integrated master's degrees at Portuguese public universities are taught in Portuguese, and the University of Coimbra states it plainly: enrolment in any of its undergraduate or integrated master's programmes requires Portuguese at CEFR B2. It does leave two doors open. An applicant at B1 may apply provided they enrol in the university's Annual Portuguese Language Course, and an applicant below B1 may apply provided they first complete a Foundation Year in Portuguese Language, which at Coimbra costs EUR 7,000. Registration in the degree is only confirmed once B1 is reached; otherwise the place is deferred a year. An applicant who expected to study in English should know this before anything else.

Fees are set per university and often per faculty. Coimbra's current table for international students entering a full bachelor's or integrated master's degree gives tuition from EUR 3,000 a year, EUR 18,000 a year for the Integrated Master's in Medicine, EUR 5,000 for a Zero Year in specific subjects, an EUR 50 application fee and an EUR 20 enrolment fee. The University of Porto does not publish a single figure at all: each of its faculties sets the fee by the real cost of the course and lists it course by course. Nationals of Portuguese-speaking countries, the CPLP, can receive a reduction of up to 45 per cent at Porto.

The calendar is unusual too. Instead of one deadline, the special call runs in phases through the year, and places left from one phase roll into the next. Coimbra's 2026/27 call ran four application phases: 15 December 2025 to 26 January 2026, 16 February to 15 April, 20 May to 20 July, and a short last phase from 7 to 14 August. Porto ran three for the same year: 2 January to 6 February, 9 February to 2 April, and 2 June to 22 July, offering 712 places in total. Applying in the first phase is the safer choice, because the later phases only fill what remains.

Selection is on grades, not interviews. Coimbra ranks applications in descending order of a final grade built from the admission examinations required for the course, each multiplied by its weighting, and some courses carry extra prerequisites such as a medical or physical fitness check.