Hundreds of university students from across the country demonstrated this Tuesday, March 24, in Lisbon for free higher education, better scholarships and more accommodation.
On national student day, which this Tuesday marks, more than 50 structures of the Student Association Movement (MAE) from different areas of the country, including student associations, academic associations, nuclei, academic groups, tunas and resident committees, participate in the demonstration that started in Rossio and will end in front of the Assembly of the Republic.
“We want higher education for everyone and there are fewer and fewer students entering higher education and the poorest who cannot enter are more susceptible” The spokesperson for the Student Association of the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences of Universidade Nova de Lisboa, one of the organizers of the demonstration, told Lusa.
Vasco Josué defended the free tuition, highlighting that his scholarship is insufficient and that he only has 20 euros left and little more for food.
The protest brings together hundreds of students from various parts of the country and among the posters the phrases stand out: “with the FCT residences[ Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologias] unopened, where are we going to sleep?” and “Education is a right”.
Conversely, the Minister of Education defends the increase in tuition fees in line with inflation.
“What we defend is that, in fact, the tuition fee should even be updated according to the inflation rate, because, in fact, it has been decreasing in recent years”, said Fernando Alexandre at the end of a meeting, in Lisbon, with associations and federations of higher education students.
Still, the governor does not take the increase for granted, since “the discussion of the budget [do Estado] will begin soon and will be discussed in the Council of Ministers”.
Regarding accommodation capacity, the minister guarantees that the next academic year will begin with an additional 14 thousand beds in residences, ensuring that there are works to be completed that will allow this reinforcement in the “next months”.
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