Only 6,639 places are left in Portugal's second university round, 42% fewer than last year
The first round placed 49,991 students and filled 88.9% of the seats. What remains opens on Monday, and more than half of it sits in inland institutions.
Apply / Learn moreThere is a lot less room to manoeuvre this year for anyone who misses out. The second round of Portugal’s national university competition opens on Monday, 24 August carrying 6,639 places, 42.3% fewer than the same round in 2025. The reason is straightforward. The first round took almost everything.
A total of 49,991 students were placed, which works out at 88.9% of the available seats and 6,092 more students than last year. The Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation calls it the biggest intake of the past decade, setting aside 2020 and its emergency pandemic rules.
When the results actually appear
Individual grades and placements only go live at one minute past midnight on Sunday, 23 August, on the official placement portal. We had reported that the results would land on 22 August, the date the calendar carried at the time; Sunday is the confirmed day. Enrolment then runs from 24 to 27 August, handled directly by each institution. Four days, and a place lapses if you let them pass.
Why so little is left over
Because so many people applied. There were 60,513 valid applications this year, 11,795 more than in 2025 and the highest figure since 1996 once you discount the pandemic years. For the first time in a while, valid candidates outnumbered the initial places on offer, by 4,285. Heavier demand fills the first round, and the second round inherits the crumbs.
Most applicants did well out of it. First choices were granted to 26,819 students, 53.6% of the total, and 84.5% landed in one of their top three.
More than half of what’s left is inland
This is where the picture turns into a different story. Occupancy after the first round runs at 94.1% on the coast and 69.2% inland. Inland institutions accounted for 19.8% of the initial places, yet they now hold 52.4% of everything going into the second round.
For anyone weighing options this week, that means most of the remaining opportunities point to Braganca, Castelo Branco, Covilha, Guarda, Portalegre and Vila Real. It is not a consolation prize. In plenty of cases it is the same degree with smaller cohorts, and a room costs a fraction of what Lisbon or Porto charges — a gap our reporting on the second-round timetable is worth reading alongside before the choices are locked in.
Applications for the second round run from 24 August to 20 September. Results follow on 30 September, with enrolment between 1 and 3 October. A third round opens in October, but by then the places are scraps.
Image: tiago186703274 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
