More than 56 thousand students have already applied for the first phase of the national competition for access to Higher Education, which ends today.
According to data updated daily on the website of the Directorate-General for Higher Education, by the end of Sunday, the first phase of the competition already had 56,434 candidates.
The figure is slightly lower than last year when 58,110 young people had applied with one day to go before the deadline.
The first phase of the national competition for access to higher education started on Monday. On the first day, 12,939 students applied for a total of 54,311 places.
This year, higher education institutions have 275 more places available than initially announced and 671 more than last year.
The results of the first round of the national competition will be released on August 27, earlier than in previous years, to ensure a minimum gap of 15 days between placement in the first round and the start of classes.
Another novelty of the competition is the provision, for the first time, of a priority quota for economically deprived students (beneficiaries of step A of school social action), with 2,028 places, for courses in all public higher education institutions.
On the other hand, the priority quota for emigrants, family members and Lusodescendants for the second phase, which starts on August 28, has been extended to around 3,800 places.
Last year, 50,315 students entered higher education through the national access competition, out of more than 61,000 applicants.
