That 1,075-euro incentive grant lands this September, but the big student grant reform slips to 2027/2028
Portugal has postponed its new higher-education student support system to 2027/2028, yet the 1,075-euro incentive grant and stronger accommodation support start in 2026/2027. Who qualifies.
Apply / Learn moreThe short answer, for anyone applying to university in Portugal right now: the 1,075-euro incentive grant is real and it is being awarded in the 2026/2027 academic year. What has slipped is everything around it — the new student support system, the one meant to change how every grant is calculated, now only takes full effect in 2027/2028.
The Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation blames the calendar. The legislative process finished late and collided with the opening of the first round of university applications. There was not enough time to build the support simulator, adapt institutional welfare services, train staff and properly test the IT systems that have to process more than 100,000 applications a year.
Who gets the 1,075-euro incentive grant?
Students who qualify for the top tier of Portugal’s child benefit. In the first year of enrolment the money is awarded automatically, with no separate claim to file. After that it becomes conditional on results: it continues only for students who finished the previous year among the top 25% of grades on their course.
What changes for student accommodation support?
Two concrete things, both starting in 2026/2027. Funding for university halls rises by more than 20%: institutions will receive 161 euros per bed occupied by a grant holder rather than the current 134 — an extra 27 euros a bed, which the government reckons could be worth up to seven million euros a year to institutions.
The second one genuinely changes lives for students who miss out on a hall place. Grant holders studying away from home will get 161 euros in accommodation support, and they no longer lose it by renting privately. They keep priority for halls, but are no longer penalised for going to the open market when no public bed exists — which, with rents still squeezing, is rather more than an administrative footnote.
What remains on hold is the heart of the reform: a model that sets each grant according to the real cost of studying in a given town and what the household can genuinely contribute. Studying in Lisbon and studying in Bragança will stop being treated as though they cost the same — but only from 2027/2028.
In the meantime this year’s calendar stands: grant applications are still made online, with deadlines opening in August and the claim submitted through the DGES platform.
Image: Vitor Oliveira from Torres Vedras, PORTUGAL / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
