(667)PORTUGUESE HIGHER EDUCATION: AN EVOLUTION IN REVERSE

摘要

The financing of public higher education is now one of the most important problems facing both thehigher education institutions and their respective students. Given the decrease in funding from thestate, public institutions of higher education are forced to seek monetary funds in the market, includingby requiring fees to students. Students, in turn, face to a very difficult economic situation ofPortuguese economy and before new requirements by public institutions of higher education, livingmoments of crisis that hampers their time at university.In these circumstances, we think it is important to investigate the living conditions of students, makethem known, particularly amongst governments and civil.So, in this article we analyze the costs of Higher Education (HE) of the Portuguese students –educational costs and living costs, according to Jonhstone typology (1986). The data that will bepresented comes up from three nationwide surveys to a representative sample of Portuguese HEstudents, applied on 1995, 2005 and 2011 by the authors, once there are no official investigation onthe theme.We will discuss the elitism of higher education in Portugal, although the democratization of Portuguesesociety initiated in 1975, after the Democratic Revolution and we compare the accessibility and theaffordability of Portuguese HE students with the one of their European colleagues whose countriesalso are living a financial crisis.