The change to the higher education admissions regime was published in the Official Gazette and provides that “the number of alternative test lists set for each institution/study cycle pair cannot exceed six”.

In the text of the diploma, the Government justifies the change from three to six sets of entrance exams as a way of ensuring greater flexibility for students and enhancing access to higher education.

With this change, candidates for higher education will have more options for national exams that they can choose as an entrance exam, with institutions being able to set up to six sets of exam subjects for access to undergraduate or integrated master's degree study cycles.

An amendment to the international student status was also published in the Official Gazette regarding the exception criteria to the notion of international students related to the residence permit.

The decree-law published establishes that for students with a studying residence permit, the period of residence “is relevant during the period in which (…) they are attending secondary education in Portugal”, a situation that was not covered by the previous rules.

The aim is to “enable students attending secondary education in Portugal to have the same conditions, for the purposes of applying for higher education, as those who have obtained a residence permit for other reasons”.

On the other hand, students who are nationals of States Parties to the Agreement on the European Economic Area are now considered equivalent to students from Member States of the European Union, also constituting exceptions to the notion of international student.

The new rules apply to applications for entry into higher education from the 2025/2026 academic year onwards, but not to students who already benefit from international student status.