There are master’s degrees that cost more than 15,000 euros and even close to 20,000, but there are also others with tuition fees exactly the same as those for bachelor’s degrees (less than 700 euros annually).
Higher education institutions have the autonomy to set their fees, and the market dictates, based on “demand and the institution’s status,” explains education economics specialist Belmiro Gil Cabrito.
Demand began to increase two decades ago with the Bologna Declaration, which made different European higher education systems comparable. Bachelor’s degrees were reduced from five to three years.
“There has been a degradation and decrease in the market value of bachelor’s degrees,” emphasized the associate professor at the Institute of Education, University of Lisbon, based on studies conducted in France.
The Portuguese reality shows that, until then, families’ focus was on ensuring their children obtained a bachelor’s degree, with “few master’s graduates.” In 1999, when the Bologna Declaration was signed, fewer than two thousand master’s degrees were awarded in Portugal, while about 30,000 students completed their bachelor’s degrees, according to data from the Directorate-General for Education and Science Statistics (DGEEC).
In just 10 years, the number of new graduates grew almost tenfold, with the number of bachelor’s and master’s degrees still far apart. By 2023, the difference had narrowed considerably: About 56,000 completed a bachelor’s degree and another 33,000 a master’s degree.
Despite the increase, “accessibility to master’s degrees is not equal for all,” warns the retired professor. While institutions linked to humanities opt for values closer to the minimum tuition, some scientific courses offer “master’s degrees with exorbitant fees.”
The advocate for universal and free education laments that Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) use the way the “market views courses” to define the values students must pay, making them the ‘weakest link’.
“There is a construction of social status that is being built. There are courses that are perceived as very good and with many job prospects. They appear in international rankings and have more recognized professors. But there are really good professors in all institutions,” says Belmiro Gil Cabrito.
The most appealing courses are in engineering and management, with those from the Nova School of Business and Economics (Nova SBE), ISCTE, or ISEG standing out.
The “regular master’s with CEMS MIM” from Nova SBE, for example, costs 19,650 euros. It’s a program “at the forefront of master’s offerings,” according to the institution’s website, which explains that in the 1st year, students follow the Management master’s curriculum, and in the 2nd year, they combine “cross-cutting themes, courses, seminars, and projects developed” by the 34 business schools of the Alliance.
In exchange for almost 20,000 euros, these students can study one semester at Nova SBE and another at one of the 33 best Management schools in the world.
There’s another Nova SBE Management master’s with “double degrees” that costs 16,000 euros and also provides for part of the training to be done at a partner institution.
The school ensures it is “aware of the difficulties some families face in meeting this investment” and therefore annually awards scholarships, having “satisfied 100% of eligible requests for financial support” last year, according to the press office in statements sent to Lusa.
Professor Belmiro Gil Cabrito emphasizes that this is often not enough: “The value of scholarships has increased in number and money, but when one parent is unemployed or when both earn minimum wage, they already struggle to make ends meet. I have serious doubts that there are no dropouts due to financial inability. If this happens with bachelor’s degrees, it happens much more with master’s degrees.”
The specialist regrets that the price of some master’s degrees impacts many candidates who “would certainly like to continue studying but cannot.”
The master’s in Management at ISCTE was designed to “continue the 1st cycle training in Management,” but the tuition is 7,350 euros. Also at ISCTE Business School, 5,800 euros are needed for the master’s in Analytical Methods for Management, and 6,850 euros for the Accounting and Management Control course.
Nearby, at ISEG, there are also courses that cost at least seven thousand euros: Tuition for the master’s in Finance is 7,900 euros, Management is
