Thousands Fill University Spots in Second phase of National Higher Education Competition
Lisbon, Portugal – September 14, 2025 - The second phase of the National Competition for Access to Public Higher Education (CNAES) has resulted in 8,824 students being placed, a 10% increase from the 7,995 placements made during the same phase last year. This follows a total of 16,594 candidates vying for 9,313 available vacancies.
According to data released today, Engineering and related technical fields proved most popular, filling 2,030 places. Business Sciences followed with 1,567 placements, and Personal Services with 1,078. However,some traditionally competitive areas saw substantially fewer placements this phase. Law had only 13 vacancies filled, while Life Sciences filled 568, Veterinary Sciences 85, Mathematics and statistics 94, and Information & Journalism 75 – all below previous years’ performance.
The total number of vacancies released for this second phase was 15,903, including 2,167 previously released vacancies from candidates placed in the first phase who were now re-allocated, plus an additional 67 openings.
Students who have been placed are able to enroll and register with their chosen institutions from September 15th to September 17th.
A third phase of the competition remains, with individual universities and polytechnics deciding whether to open further applications for each course. Institutions can offer up to the number of vacancies from the second phase, plus any remaining unfilled spots from students who did not enroll after being placed in the current phase. Vacancies for the third phase will be published on the Directorate-General for Higher Education (DGES) website (http://www.dges.gov.pt) on September 22nd, with applications accepted online through the DGES website from September 23rd to 25th.
For context, the first phase of the competition placed 43,899 students, with 39,498 (90%) successfully registering.
Detailed data from the second phase of CNAES 2025 is available here: Phase_2_2025.
Analysts suggest the reintroduction of exams in secondary education may be contributing to the overall decline in higher education applications this year, indicating a potential imbalance between supply and demand.
