Special Regimes

CANDIDATES

These special regimes are intended for students who meet the specific qualifications and personal requirements identified in each type of special application. It is an independent access route different from the National Access Route , the Institutional Routes, and the Special Routes.

HOW TO APPLY

Applications must be submitted in person only to the Higher Education Access Office (GAES) or through diplomatic channels, according to the application for which the candidate is applying.

Conditions and documentation required to apply under each of the following special regimes:
A – Portuguese Diplomatic Mission Abroad
B – Portuguese Scholarship Holders Civil Servants in Official Mission Abroad
C – Officers of the Portuguese Armed Forces
D – Scholarship Holders from Portuguese Speaking African Countries
E – Accredited Diplomatic Mission in Portugal
F – High-Performance Sports Candidates
G – Timor-Leste Nationals and Children of Timor-Leste Nationals

The information on this page does not replace the need to visit the Directorate-General for Higher Education website (DGES ).

CALENDAR

Applications take place in a single period, according to the calendar approved by order of the Director-General of the DGES, to be published on the DGES website.

Enyrance Exams for 2025/26 and 2026/27

Under the terms of article 21 of Decree-Law no. 296-A/98, ofSeptember 25, in conjunction with articles 18 and 20, the National Commissionfor Access to Higher Education (CNAES) is responsible for setting the list ofentrance exams, at the proposal of the higher education institutions, whereby thenumber of exams required for admission to each institution/course pair may notbe less than two and more than three. Competent body of the higher educationinstitution, authorize that, for certain institution/course pairs, the numberof lists be increased to a maximum of six.

In this context, and following the introduction of therequirement that the number of exams required for admission to eachinstitution/study cycle pair cannot be less than two and more than three,Decree-Law no. 64-A/2023 of July 31 three, by Decree-Law no. 64-A/2023, of July31, which made the tenth amendment to Decree-Law no. 296-A/98, of September 25,in its current wording, with article 34 of that Decree-Law providing that thechanges relating to the number of entrance exams and the resulting formula forcalculating the application classification are applicable to applications tohigher education for access and admission from the 2025/2026 academic yearonwards.

See here CNAES Decision no. 852/2024 , published in Diário daRepublica no. 126 - 2nd Series, of July 2, which publishes the list of entranceexams for applications to higher education in the 2025-2026 and 2026-2027academic years.