Universidade dos Açores

Universidade dos Açores (utterly UAç ) is an educational institution of the state type that has been active in scientific and academic activities since the beginning of the distant 1976 in Portugal. Now UAç has a small urban student campus in the city of Ponta Delgada.

Universidade dos Açores is a small educational institution, on the territory of which, in parallel, there is a course of training for about 5,000 people. The teaching staff of the university is about 500 teachers of the highest category. The university conducts active cooperation with various international universities in the field of student and teaching exchange. The university actively covers its activities in social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin ).

The university supports student participation in the national academic mobility programs Almeida Garrett and Vasco da Gama, as well as in the Erasmus+ program for European Union countries.

Master's and doctoral theses are defended publicly before a specially appointed committee. Grades are given on a scale of up to 20 points, and the highest qualification is awarded with the distinction "approved unanimously, with distinction and praise."

The university annually awards a scientific merit prize worth 6,000 euros, supported by the bank Caixa de Crédito Agrícola Mútuo dos Açores. In 2026, the prize was awarded for work in the field of medical sciences and health sciences.

• due to the traditional local holiday Segunda-feira da Serreta, classes at the university on Terceira Island in the 2026/27 academic year started one day later than on the other islands,
• in May 2026, the university's General Council re-elected Susana Mira Leal as rector for a second term.

Accommodation: the university's student residences offer 250 places on the Ponta Delgada campus (São Miguel island) and 90 places on the Angra do Heroísmo campus (Terceira island). The rooms are fully furnished and equipped, and check-in is available around the clock.

Meals: the university's canteens and cafeterias offer lunch and dinner from Monday to Saturday at a low price, including vegetarian options.

The university supports diverse extracurricular student activities.

• under the FRA (Futuro, Responsabilidade e Ação) participatory student budget, students can propose their own projects — each can receive funding of up to 2500 euros,
• official participation in extracurricular academic, cultural, scientific, sports and social activities is recorded in the diploma supplement,
• the university has nine student music ensembles: on the Ponta Delgada campus — Grupo de Fados, Estudantina Universitária dos Açores, Tuna com Elas, TAUA, Tunídeos and Enf'In Tuna, and on the Angra do Heroísmo campus — TUSA, TAESEAH, Neptuna and Sons do Mar,
• in the sports facilities of the Ponta Delgada and Angra do Heroísmo campuses, students play handball, football, basketball, volleyball, badminton and tennis — the Ponta Delgada campus facilities are open on weekdays from 8:30 to 22:30, and are available on weekends by prior booking,
• the university has an Academia das Artes unit, which promotes artistic activity and creative development among students,
• university students take part in academic mobility programs: for example, one student studied under the Erasmus program at the University of Bergen in Norway and completed courses on Arctic marine biology on the island of Svalbard.

For the past few years, the university dos Açores has consistently been in the top 20 universities in the country. In addition, the university easily proves its right to be listed in the TOP 5 percent of the best of the best universities in the world.

The infrastructure of the university implies the availability and access to a large library. The university offers students accommodation in a dormitory. There is also access to sports fields and halls for training and active recreation.

In the 2026/27 academic year, year 1 classes for Licenciatura and CTeSP programs started in mid-September, except for the basic cycle of medicine, which started in early September.

Applications for enrollment in individual academic courses for the first semester of the 2026/27 academic year are submitted through the Inforestudante portal at the beginning of the semester. After the first phase of the 2026 National Admission Competition, the university had vacant places remaining for the second phase in 14 courses across various faculties and schools. Smapse specialists will support you at every stage of admission.

In the first phase of the 2026 National Access Competition, the university admitted 566 students out of 667 places offered, corresponding to an admission rate of 85%. Places were fully filled in the intake for the basic cycle of medicine, communication and public relations, basic education, nursing at the Ponta Delgada campus, Portuguese and English studies, management, history, the preparatory course in veterinary medicine, psychology, and social work. Among the 2026 intake courses, the highest admission score of the last student admitted under the general contingent was recorded in the basic cycle of medicine — 17.77 points.

In order to get into the number of students of this high you do not need to be a native of Portugal. The admission committee considers applications for admission to the university and makes decisions based on the results of entrance examinations and data on past academic performance. At the same time, as the statistics show, the main part of applicants in the university UAç successfully passes the procedure of enrollment to the university. The competition is about 90 places for 100 applications.

Cost of university entrance

Each academic year, the university traditionally divides into two semester of the classical size. Taking into account the simple fact that the institution belongs to the category of state, students can count on financial assistance from the university, provided high results in academic performance.

• the Erasmus+ scholarship for program countries is 786 euros per month for study and 936 euros per month for traineeships, and for doctoral students on short-term mobilities under the BIP program — 79 euros per day,
• Erasmus+ also covers travel costs: the amount depends on the distance — from 28 euros (10–99 km) to 1735 euros (over 8000 km),
• for the first wave of Santander scholarships under the Erasmus program, 20 scholarships of 500 euros each are available,
• at the Academic Excellence Awards ceremony, the total amount of admission, academic, and research merit awards in 2026 was 44,000 euros.

• Guardianship services during the studies
• Student supervision