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The draft 2027 State Budget would update the 697 euro maximum tuition fee annually from the 2027/2028 academic year, based on the 2026 average consumer price index excluding housing.
More than a hundred students gathered on Wednesday, 21 October, outside the government seat at Campus XXI, with protest activity starting at 17:00.
The tuition cap has not changed since the 2020/2021 academic year, and an earlier attempt to unfreeze it in the 2026 State Budget was blocked in Parliament.
Students at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lisbon cite missing study spaces, no public canteen and no premises for student associations and musical groups.
More than a hundred higher education students gathered on Wednesday, 21 October, in front of the Culturgest building in Lisbon, next to the government seat at Campus XXI. Some had been assembled there since 17:00. The protest was called by student associations from several higher education institutions in the capital, who oppose the proposal to update the maximum tuition fee.
Among the placards were slogans such as "Education is not a business" and "The funding went down the drain". Some signs were aimed at Prime Minister Luís Montenegro, including one that referred to 55 properties as a way of paying for a degree.
The government intends to unfreeze tuition fees from the 2027/2028 academic year. According to the draft 2027 State Budget, the maximum fee, currently set at 697 euros, would be updated each year by the average annual change in the consumer price index excluding housing, as recorded in 2026. The fee has stayed at this level since the 2020/2021 academic year. The government had already tried to introduce the change in the 2026 State Budget, but Parliament blocked it.
Students at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lisbon said they face a shortage of study spaces, no premises for student associations and musical groups, and no public canteen. Before the demonstration, student representatives met the faculty management to set out these problems. According to the students, the management blamed the underfunding of public higher education and said it would try to do what it could with the resources available. The students said they expect answers soon.
The same students warned that the planned fee increase could lead to dropouts from higher education. Their concerns link the cost of study to the broader financing of public universities, which they say has been cut.
Five institutions backed the protest: the Faculties of Arts, Fine Arts and Psychology and the Institute of Education of the University of Lisbon, the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences of NOVA University Lisbon, and the Lisbon Higher School of Music. Their associations are calling for free, democratic and quality public education. The demonstration was timed to reach the government seat, where the students were gathering from 17:00 on the day.
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More than a hundred higher education students gathered in Lisbon on Wednesday, 21 October, against a government plan to update the maximum tuition fee in line with inflation from the 2027/2028 academic year.
AI text based on reports by Diário de Notícias and SIC Notícias. Published .