Universidade Lusófona: A success story that began 30 years ago

Talking about Universidade Lusófona is talking about the history of higher education and the transformations intrinsic to its own modernization and restructuring in Portugal.

The creation of the University project is born with ISMAG - Higher Institute of Mathematics and Management, focused on the areas of Mathematics and Management and with ISHT - Higher Institute of Humanities and Technologies, focused on the areas of Humanities and Technologies, that united their trajectories in the period of national (re)democratization and 10 years later gave rise to the Lusófona University of Humanities and Technologies.

On April 14, 1998, the public interest of the Lusófona University of Humanities and Technologies is recognized, which in 2022 gives rise to the Lusófona University with two university centers in Lisbon and Porto.

The chairman of the Board of Directors of Cofac, the university’s founding entity, Manuel de Almeida Damásio, explained that “the objective of this was to provide solutions to the low level of Higher Education and expand higher academic training with the creation of different degrees in areas of management and human sciences to try to combat the scarce lack of areas of study”.

In addition, generating more Professors and Doctorates with the aim of qualifying people to continue the propagation of Portuguese Higher Education, one of the challenges encountered along this path, says the professor “was to carry forward an educational project that responded to to the needs of the country and the will of the people, and that, even today, there is resistance, from a conservative part, to courses in more creative and artistic areas".

The success achieved and which has expanded to more than 5 CPLP countries is the result of continuous work and good management. Dedication to this career, in the area of education, is one of Professor Manuel de Almeida Damásio's greatest joys, a feeling he intends to convey to his students, employees and teachers.

About the future...
Manuel de Almeida Damásio has a positive and challenging vision and believes that it is necessary to continue the work developed by Lusófona University, remembering that the project brings great happiness and many anxieties, but what is good overcomes what is difficult. "Successes bring great satisfaction, but progress is continuous. Despite the current development, we always seek to be ahead in the future".

“I have two great joys: the first is when we manage to open the classes, the second is when we deliver the diplomas”

Manuel de Almeida Damasio
Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ensino Lusófona