NRP Portugal

nationalandinternationalmobilityofstudentsandgraduates;(iv)theestablishmentof new rules that facilitate adult admission in higher education and make it moreflexible; (v) the widening of the scope of non‐refundable scholarships awarded tostudents enrolled in technological specialisation degrees and master degrees,promotingnewconditionstoenterandattendhighereducationbyallstudents;(vi)andtheimplementationofagrantsystemtohighereducationstudentswithmutualguarantee,whichcomplementstheschoolsocialservicessystemforhighereducationstudents.The fulfilment of this process of reform was widely acknowledged in the analysispresentedbyOECDinApril2008,inthestudy“HigherEducationfortheKnowledgeSociety”–comparativeanalysison“TertiaryEducation”policies,whichinvolved24countries–mainlyatthelegislativereformlevelintroducedbythenewLegalRegimeof the Higher Education Institutions, of the widening of the recruitment base ofhighereducation,namelybymeansofaninnovativegrantsystemandattractionofnewgroups,theincentivetotheinternationalisationofhighereducationandofthescientificcommunity,theopeningofhighereducationinstitutionstosocietyandthelabour market, the reform of the evaluation and accreditation system and thereinforcement of the scientific and technologic capacity of higher educationinstitutions.It should also be stressed that in the academic year of 2006‐2007, the downwardtrend in new higher education students was inverted; this inversion was alsoconfirmedin2007‐2008.Asaresult,in2007,forthefirsttimesince2002,thetotalnumber of students attending higher education increased in Portugal. On the otherhand, the number of new graduates in scientific and technologic areas hassignificantly increased in the past few years, having reached the figure of 18.1 per1,000 in the population aged between 20 and 29 years for the first time in 2007,(abovetheEuropeanaverage),whilethenumberofnewdoctoratesinscientificandtechnological areas increased to 0.42 per 1,000 in the population aged between 25and34years,in2007(havingbeen0.3in2001).11