Portugal's Concurso Nacional de Acesso: How the National Access Contest Works

What the concurso nacional de acesso is

The concurso nacional de acesso (national access contest) is Portugal's centralized system for admission to public higher education. The Direção-Geral do Ensino Superior (DGES) runs it once a year, ranking every applicant for every course by a calculated score. You list your course preferences in order, and the system places you into the highest-ranked option where your score clears the cutoff.

How your score is calculated

Your ranking combines two elements: your secondary school internal average (média do ensino secundário) and your results in the national exams (provas de ingresso) tied to your target course. Each course and institution sets its own combination formula (fórmula de cálculo) and decides which national exams count, so a biology exam matters for a life-sciences course but not for a law course. Some courses set minimum grade thresholds in specific exams before your application even gets ranked.

Check the fórmula de cálculo for your target course on the DGES course guide before you register for national exams. Sitting the wrong exam subjects means you do not meet a course's entry requirements even with a strong overall average.

Application phases

DGES runs the contest in up to three phases. The first phase covers most applicants and most course places. A second phase reopens for courses that still have empty places after the first round, and a third phase covers polytechnic institutes with remaining vacancies. Your rank in an earlier phase does not carry over automatically. If you are not placed, you reapply in the next phase with updated preferences.

Universities versus polytechnics

Portugal's public higher education splits into universities and polytechnic institutes. Universities lean toward theoretical and research-oriented degrees, while polytechnics lean toward applied and technical training. Both types of institutions use the same concurso nacional system and the same DGES portal, so you rank courses from either type side by side in your preference list.

What a recognized secondary diploma equivalency means

Before you compete in the concurso nacional with a foreign diploma, Portuguese authorities confirm it matches the 12th-grade level of the Portuguese system. This equivalency process checks your subjects and grading scale against the Portuguese curriculum. Apply for equivalency well before the application window opens, since the contest requires a confirmed equivalency on file, not a pending request.

How EU and international applicants fit in

If you hold a secondary diploma recognized as equivalent to the Portuguese one, and it comes from an EU or EEA country, you apply through the same concurso nacional as Portuguese students. Portugal cannot apply different admission rules by nationality inside the EU, so your score uses the same formula, and you compete for the same course places.

If you do not hold a Portuguese secondary diploma and are not an EU/EEA national, you generally apply through a separate international student pathway rather than the concurso nacional. Each institution sets its own selection process and quota for this route, and the criteria vary by university and course. Check the international admissions page of your target university directly, since DGES coordinates the national contest but not this separate pathway.

Retaking exams to improve your score

If your first national exam results do not reach the score you need, Portugal lets you retake specific national exams later to raise your grade for a future concurso nacional application, a route often called exames de melhoria. This applies even after you finish secondary school, so a gap year to retake one or two subject exams is a common strategy among applicants targeting competitive courses such as medicine. Retaking an exam replaces your earlier result with the new score for that specific subject, it does not average the two attempts.

How many course preferences to list

The concurso nacional lets you rank a wide list of course and institution combinations in a single application, not only one choice. Listing a realistic spread, from a top-choice course down to a safer backup with a lower cutoff, protects you from ending a phase with no placement at all. Order your list by genuine preference rather than perceived cutoff difficulty, since the system places you into your highest-ranked option that clears the cutoff, not your safest one.

Common mistakes applicants make

• Registering for the wrong national exam subjects for a chosen course, which blocks the application regardless of grades.

• Missing the phase-one deadline and assuming a later phase has the same course places available.

• Not checking that a foreign secondary diploma has been formally recognized as equivalent before applying.

• Ranking course preferences by prestige alone instead of realistic score cutoffs from previous years.

Where to check current requirements

Course-specific formulas, exam subject lists, and minimum grades change by institution and by year. Confirm the current fórmula de cálculo, required exams, and phase dates for your target course directly on the DGES website before registering for national exams.