Iscte is an innovative and dynamic university focused on the development of teaching and research.
Why Iscte?
The mission of Iscte is to support, prepare, and stimulate its students in order to enable them to contribute in a significant and distinctive way to community life. Currently offering more than 100 degree programs across its various fields of study, Iscte presents itself as an innovative and influential institution that responds to societal challenges through its educational and investigative work.
International experience is a fundamental component of a student’s curriculum. For this reason, the university has an internationalization strategy that pursues the increasing globalization of teaching, research, and innovation. Iscte has agreements and cooperation protocols with universities around the world, welcomes foreign researchers and teachers, offers joint degree programs with some of the most reputed international universities, and promotes the international experience of its students, who represent more than 98 different nationalities.
Located in the heart of Lisbon – selected by multiple international organizations as the best tourist destination in the world – Iscte is the only public university in the country with a centralized campus where all the fields of study share the same space, generating, thereby, interpersonal contact, interaction, and interdisciplinarity. Students value the transdisciplinary environment which they find at Iscte – University Institute of Lisbon. Diligence and, at the same time, warmth define the relationships between students and teachers, resulting in a relaxed atmosphere that maintains academic rigor. This scholastic quality is encouraged by the coexistence of all four schools on the same campus.
For Iscte, the promotion of sustainability in its multiple dimensions – environmental, social and economic – makes up part of its responsibility as a higher education institution. Iscte was the first Portuguese university to receive an International Environmental Certification, implementing routine measures in its institutional management, teaching, research and university development practices that aim at a guarantee of sustainability. To ensure career sustainability for their students, all of the undergraduate study programs also necessarily incorporate curricular units in transferable competencies. Students develop skills such as the capacity to identify problems, flexibility, a positive attitude, strong communication, teamwork and other characteristics that help them to face the challenges of academia and the labour market.
In Iscte, one can find a series of groups which host activities that contribute not only to personal and professional development, but also to a unique and unforgettable academic experience. With more than 16 student associations, a Tuna Académica, and a students’ union, among other groups, there is no lack of opportunity for the development of personal projects and extracurricular activities. Furthermore, Social Action Services are available to the student community to ensure, whenever necessary, financial support through social action scholarships, work study and housing.
With an employability rate over 96% among recent graduates, Iscte promotes students’ access to the labour market in numerous development activities throughout the year. Various companies and institutions regularly recruit finalists for jobs from Iscte, including: Allianz, APAV, Caixa Geral de Depósitos, BANIF, Bayer, BMW, agencies and other public organizations, Central de Cervejas, CCB, CTT, Danone, Deloitte, EDP, El Corte Inglês, Ernst & Young, Galp Energia, IBM, Jerónimo Martins, KPMG, LNEC, L’Oréal, Nestlé, Novabase, Peugeot, Portugal Telecom, PwC and RTP.
Iscte has a vast and highly qualified body of teachers of varying nationalities and distinct areas of knowledge. With 100% of its professors holding doctorates, Iscte is recognized globally for its quality of teaching due to the proximity of knowledge-transmission. With more than 6000 Alumni, Iscte prides itself on having diverse former students in even more diverse professional areas within society. From business to the government to the industrial and social sectors, Iscte students are marked distinctly by their acquirement of skills and their opening of doors within the professional world.
Research and scientific development are significant parts of Iscte’s foundation. With internationally recognized research centers in all of our disciplines, we seek to advance knowledge, offering it to the service of institutions, the economy and society.