Universidade Fernando Pessoa was recognized as a public interest organization by the Portuguese State in July 1996 and it is the result of a pioneering higher education project initiated in the 1980’s with the creation of two higher education institutes that provided its structural basis. Today, the University has around five thousand students and is organized in three faculties (Health Sciences, Human and Social Sciences, Science and Technology), one School of Health Sciences and one autonomous unit (Ponte de Lima College). Being a foundational University, UFP has never been market oriented. It has managed to develop into a solid private higher education institution with a strong academic focus and a constant concern with quality maintenance and improvement in what concerns a highly qualified teaching staff, physical infrastructures and equipments and its teaching, research and extension project.

Our mission: to provide high quality education services and to be an internationally recognized European teaching and research university, contributing for the promotion of private higher education as a public good, associated with private benefits and based on the over-arching principle of public responsibility. The University understands that it has a key role to play in the scientific, cultural, social and economic development of the society and aims at continuously strengthen its position as a member of the international community of scholarly institutions that:
– provides excellent education in a wide spectrum of academic disciplines;
– promotes scholarship through:
— the creation, advancement, application, transmission and preservation of knowledge;
— the stimulation of critical and independent thinking;
– creates flexible, life-long learning opportunities;
– encourages academically rigorous and socially meaningful research;
– enables students to become well-rounded, creative persons; responsible, productive citizens and future leaders in their respective fields by:
— providing an excellent academic education;
— developing their leadership abilities and potential to be world-class, innovative graduates with competitive skills;
— instilling in them the importance of a sound value framework;
— developing their ability to adapt to the rapidly changing environments of the information era;
– is locally relevant through:
— its contribution to the prosperity, competitiveness and quality of life in Portugal;
— its responsiveness to the educational, cultural, economic, scientific, technological, industrial, health, environmental and social needs of the country;
— its active and constructive involvement in community development and service;
— its sensitivity to the demands of our time and its proactive contribution towards shaping the future;
– creates an intellectually stimulating and culturally vibrant, pleasant and safe environment in which its students and staff can flourish;
– its commitment to effective, efficient, caring and innovative approaches to teaching, research and community service; client-centered management and administration; and good governance.

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