Politics 10 August 2026

Portugal restores the expert-panel route into university's disability quota — from 2027/2028

Law 44/2026, published on Monday, sets out the rights of students with specific educational needs in higher education, brings back expert-committee assessment for applicants without a multi-purpose disability certificate, and amends the 2006 accessibility rules.

Apply to a Portuguese university with a disability this year and you need a multi-purpose medical incapacity certificate to prove it. Applicants who could not get the document in time were shut out of the priority quota, even where the disability was documented some other way. The law published on Monday undoes that.

Law 44/2026 appeared in the official gazette on 10 August, approving the legal framework for students with specific educational needs in higher education. On the way through, it amends Decree-Law 163/2006, the rulebook for accessibility in public buildings, public thoroughfares and housing.

Who it covers

The framework sets out rights for students with an incapacity of 60 per cent or more, evidenced by the multi-purpose certificate. Those students can enter the priority admissions quota, get tailored arrangements for attendance and assessment, and are covered by mobility and accessibility requirements, digital and technological access to information, communication and guidance included.

The contested piece is elsewhere. The law restores the option for an applicant without the certificate to reach the priority quota through assessment by an expert committee, reversing a restriction the government introduced this year. In practice it reopens a door for anyone stuck in the certificate queue, which in several regions runs to months.

The timing

None of it applies until the 2027/2028 academic year. Anyone applying this month through the national admissions round is still under the current rules, and that distinction is worth holding on to before counting on the quota.

The President signed the bill on 3 August alongside other measures on school accessibility. Amending the 2006 regime is the signal that this goes wider than universities, since that decree governs ramps, lifts and routes in every building open to the public in the country.

This one does not arrive alone. Last week brought Law 41/2026, which wrote accessibility for students with special needs into the Education System Framework Law, and Monday’s same gazette edition also carried the transition homes for patients cleared to leave hospital.

By Tomás Vasconcelos

Image: Alexkom000 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

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