This study stems from research on the ‘Standing Conferences of Rectors and Vice-Chancellors of the European Universities' (1948–), an experimental initiative for co-operation among European universities, emphasising the reformative ideal that appeared in international circles in the years following the Second World War. These conceptions were gradually received in the sphere of Portuguese national education, enabling an internal and already on-going debate on the role of the university in Portugal to proceed and possibly providing a base for a ‘last-minute’ and delayed attempt to reform higher education in Portugal during the 1970s – just before the outbreak of the Revolution in 1974. Based on a historiographical methodology, this article attempts to understand how and in what shape recommendations from international circles (mainly from these European University Conferences) were assimilated by the thought and philosophical insights of the Portuguese elite, mainly concerning the gauge of National Education and the concept of the university. Thus, an effort is made to understand the official view of the Portuguese ‘New State’ regarding the ‘aims of the university’, contextualising the Portuguese higher education problem in the 1950s and 1960s, and in its relation to Portuguese national science policy rationales.
Acknowledgements
The present study was originally presented as a paper at the ‘History of European Universities. Challenges and transformations’ international conference held in Lisbon between 18 and 20 April 2011 – University of Lisbon Campus, in the panel ‘Changing conceptions of University and Scientific Policy'. The study benefits from a Ph.D. study on the history of Portuguese science policy (Brandão 2012a) and also from a collective work-project (Rollo et al. 2012) encompassing the author's personal inquiries and archival research on the Institute of High Culture (IAC) history, which was the main Portuguese science policy agency, at least until 1967, when the National Board of Scientific and Technological Research (JNICT) was created.
Funding
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, fellowship reference SFRH/BPD/84971/2012.
Notes on contributor
Tiago Brandão has a PhD in Economic History and is Integrated Researcher at the Portuguese Institute of Contemporary History (IHC, FCSH-UNL). He has a PhD thesis entitled ‘The National Board of Scientific and Technological Research (1967–1974): Organization of Science and Science Policy in Portugal’. He is presently conducting a post-doc working program entitled ‘The National Board of Scientific and Technological Research (JNICT, 1974–1997): Science Policy in Democracy’, at the same time comparing different national processes. He is a collaborator and visiting researcher in various research centres: INRS (Montreal, Canada), IN+ / IST (Lisbon, Portugal) and PPGTE / CHTS-UTFPR (Curitiba, Brazil). His research field is contemporary history, using a historiographical methodology and stressing the historical perspective for a deeper and empirical understanding of science policy issues.