FAQs

There are several types of access for Undergraduate (1st Cycle) and integrated Master’s programmes. Each type of access has its own entry contest and rules, namely:

General Regime

Access for students who have completed their High School Education and are nationals of any country within the European Union. 

If you are a national of a country outside the EU, please check under exceptions to International Students Status, as you may fit under one of the conditions and be admissible under the General Regime.

International Student Statute

Access for applicants who have completed their High School Education and are national's from countries outside the European Union, according to the International Student Status regulations. Learn more here
 

Change of Institution / Programme Pair

Access for candidates who have already been enrolled in (even if not attending) higher education, nationally or abroad, and who have not completed their degree and wish to change course or Faculty. It is only possible to request a change from the academic year following the year of admission to higher education.

Applicants must not be covered by the International Student Statute.

Degree Holders

Access for candidates who already hold other higher education qualifications, national or foreign. 
Applicants must not be covered by the International Student Status.

23 + (23 years and over):

- Access for candidates over 23 years of age on 31 December of the year preceding the year in which the exams are held at the Higher Education Institutions;
- Do not hold a qualification for access to higher education, OR do not have the national exams requested for the course (you may already have a qualification) OR they are no longer valid, 
- Hold the specially appropriate exams designed to assess their ability to attend higher education, taken at Higher Education Institutions;
- Satisfy the prerequisites, if required by the institution/course pair you are applying for. 

Applicants must not be covered by the International Student Statute.

Yes, as long as you meet the requirements for both regimes. In this case you need to complete two separate applications and pay both application fees.

Yes, you can resume attending a Bachelor's Degree or Integrated Master's Degree course at the Universidade Católica that you have attended in the past and interrupted.

No.

Yes, you can reactivate your enrolment in an undergraduate or integrated Master's programme in which you have been enrolled but whose enrolment you cancelled at the beginning of the academic year.

• High-performance athletes, requiring a declaration from the Portuguese Institute of Sport and Youth (IPDJ).  
• People with physical and sensory disabilities, requiring a Medical Certificate of Multipurpose Disability (AMIM). 
• Portuguese immigrants, family members who live in the same household, and Luso-descendants, requires proof of this status issued by Portuguese diplomatic or consular authorities.

There is no Foundation Year for any degree programme taught at Universidade Católica.

You may apply under the General Regime. You will need a ENES form issued in the year of application with the exams required for the programme.

If you are over 23 and the results of your ENES form are no longer valid, you can also apply through the ‘23 years and over’ access.

Yes, as long as you meet the requirements regarding admission exams.

After enrolment, you should check Católica’s regulations for accreditation, as well as the regulations of the faculty into which you were admitted.

The application process can begin without the final scores (without the submission of secondary education form or foreign diploma and certificate of equivalence to Portuguese secondary education, whichever is applicable); however, only applicants who submit the ENES form/foreign diploma and certificate of equivalence to Portuguese secondary education (provisional or final), whichever is applicable, before the application deadline will be considered. Those who fail to do so will receive the result of "Excluded" and will be moved automatically to the next phase (should there be one), and do not need to apply again or pay for a second application.

You must sit the national admission exams of the subjects required for the programme(s) you wish to apply for.

Most programmes calculate the application score as follows (on a 0-200 scale):

For Católica Lisbon School of Business and Economics International Undergraduate programmes and the Integrated Master's in Medicine the calculation is as follows:

Yes, Check here

Yes.

No, separate applications need to be completed for each campus.

Yes, but you need to complete separate applications for each campus.

You can apply to up to four programmes. If these programmes are from different Faculties, you will have to pay an application fee per Faculty.

• ID document
• Photo (passport size)

Applicants with Portuguese secondary education must also present:

• form issued in the year of application

Applicants with foreign secondary education must also present:

• Diploma and academic transcript of secondary education (subjects completed and scores) with final classification;
• Declaration issued by the Secondary Education Institution, with information on the final grading scale and minimum pass scores, should this information not be included on the academic transcript;
• Certificate of equivalence to Portuguese secondary education (provisional or final)  - Direção Geral Educação - DGE

Original documents / certificates are not required at the time of completing the application.

If you have completed Portuguese secondary education, check the national admission exams expiration date on the ENES form issued in the year of your application.

If you have completed foreign secondary education, you can use scores from national exams taken in 2022, 2023, 2024 or 2025.

Yes, these are independent admissions systems. See Católica's application calendar here.

See FAQ 3.4.

If you live in Portugal, you should request the certificate of equivalence to Portuguese secondary education at the secondary school (public, private, and cooperative, or private, with pedagogical autonomy for the secondary school level) in your area of residence.

If you do not live in Portugal (even if you are a Portuguese citizen), you must send your request to the Direção-Geral da Educação (DGE) by registered post with acknowledgement of receipt, to the following address: Av. 24 de Julho, n.º 140 – 4º andar | 1399-025 LISBOA. Please check for necessary documentation on the DGE website at DGE - FAQs - Equivalence of Foreign Qualifications.

If you start the process at the DGE with your final diploma, a certificate of equivalence to Portuguese secondary education will be issued, should you meet the requirements. If you have submitted a provisional document to the DGE, only a provisional certificate of equivalence to Portuguese secondary education will be issued. You can use a provisional certificate of equivalence to apply; however, after the beginning of the school year you will need to present the final certificate of equivalence to Portuguese secondary education.

Paid applications, even if incomplete, will always appear in results. If you are not admitted due to the absence of scores, you will automatically be transferred to the next phase, should there be one. See the deadline in the calendar for the submission of these documents.

In these situations, you will be admitted if you have an application score equal to or higher than the last student placed in the phase you applied for.

See FAQ 2.3.

No, because this document contains the average score for the completion of secondary education according to the Portuguese grading scale.

In the application process you will only need to submit the digital version of the documents on the platform. However, you will have to present the original documents at the Academic Services, when the school year starts.

If you do not present your original documents, your enrolment may be cancelled.

You can apply under the General Scheme if you have an ENES form issued in the year of application. Typically, applicants with the nationality of a non-EU country must apply through the ‘International Student Status’ competition, whose requirements and exceptions can be found at here.

The score on the certificate of equivalence to the Portuguese secondary education will be the one used as the average  score for the secondary education.

Students who have completed a foreign secondary education may take and use the Portuguese national admission exams results. They are permitted to combine foreign exam scores with Portuguese exam scores, when the candidate demonstrates that he/she is using the Portuguese exam because he/she doesn’t have the corresponding foreign homologous exam to replace the admission exam, or because he/she didn't take it, or because he/she didn’t get the minimum required score in that subject.

If the candidate chooses to take Portuguese national admission exams in subjects where he/she also has scores in his/her foreign diploma, he/she cannot mix exams from the two diplomas but can only use the set of exams from one of the diplomas and should choose the one that maximizes his/her application score.

See FAQ 3.5.

Yes, when the required documents have been issued in another country (outside Portugal), they should be legalised/authenticated, depending on the country, in:

a) embassies or consular services of Portugal in the foreign country;

b) embassies or consular services of foreign countries in Portugal (check in advance if this option exists);

c) in the country of origin, for countries that adhered to the Hague Convention of October 5, 1961, ratified by Decree-Law no. 48450, published in the Government Gazette, 1st Series, no. 148, of June 24, 1968;

d) in countries where there is no Portuguese diplomatic representation, or that do not adhere to the Hague Convention Apostille, the legalization/authentication will be done, depending on the case, by the official entity of the country of origin competent for that purpose (e.g., Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Justice).

When the documents to be submitted are written in a foreign language, the respective translation into Portuguese must be submitted, done under the terms foreseen in the notarial law.

The application fee is charged per Faculty. If the programmes you choose are all from the same faculty, you only pay one application fee.

No. Please see the faculties’ websites for future admissions periods.

No, applications are independent for each campus. When you start the application process, you choose in the first step which campus you want to apply for.

Your application will only be considered after you pay the application fee.

If the application fee is not paid on time, your application will not be considered, and your name will not appear in the results.

After the application deadline, the overall application score is calculated for all applicants (see FAQ 2.3.)

Applications are ranked in descending order by application score, and the candidates (who meet the requirements) with the highest application score are admitted up to the limit of slots or minimum admission score set by the faculty at each phase.

See FAQ 6.1.

If you meet the admission requirements for several programmes in a faculty, you will be admitted according to the order of preference you indicated at the beginning of the application.

If you fulfil the admission requirements for several programmes from different faculties, you will receive an ATM reference for each programme to which you have been admitted, and you should only pay the one related to the programme you want to attend.

No, because the ranking is done for the campus and programme that you chose to apply for.

This is not possible.

See FAQ 1.5.

The admissions decision will include information regarding merit-based scholarships.

See FAQ 1.5.

At the beginning of the academic year, you should present the original documents to Academic Services. If you do not present your original documents, your registration/enrolment may be cancelled.

After you are enrolled, you will receive an email from your programme’s student affairs office with all the essential information.

Please check the site of your faculty, and if you need help, send an email to your programme’s student affairs office.