QUALITY ASSURANCE OF DOCTORAL EDUCATION IN PORTUGAL: A RETROSPECTIVE OF THE FIRST ACCREDITATION CYCLE

In the last decades, the assurance of doctoral education's quality and their respective external quality assurance (QA) systems have been on the agenda of many European countries. Portugal is no exception, with doctoral education being envisaged by the national study programmes' accreditation system. This study aims to discuss both the forms assumed by the QA of doctoral education within the scope of a tightly regulated system, such as the Portuguese one, as well as the effects or impact of such a system in this education level. In trying to explore this impact, particular attention is given to the accreditation results (full accreditation, conditional accreditation and non-accreditation) of the doctoral programmes according to their scientific area and higher education sector (public and private). Overall it is possible to conclude that the Portuguese QA system has been contributing to the reorganisation of doctoral education, both by excluding programmes that do not meet a set of minimum quality criteria and by promoting the enhancement of the remaining programmes, through the enforcement of improvement measures. This reorganisation seems to differently affect doctoral programmes from distinct scientific areas as well as from private and public institutions.