On 5 and 6 September the University of Minho (UMinho) hosted the 13th edition of the National Meeting of Portuguese Student Ombuds.
The initiative aimed to debate the current role of Student Ombudsperson in Portugal in order to choose the best future options.
The two days were organised by the Portuguese Network of Higher Education Student Ombudspersons, created in 2019 and currently chaired by UMinho’s Student Ombudsperson, Rosa Maria Vasconcelos.
Rosa Maria Vasconcelos guaranteed interesting moments of discussion ‘that will serve to look at the past, evaluate what has been done, and realise the growing importance that the figure of the Student Ombudsman has taken on in the higher education panorama since it was created under the Legal Framework for Higher Education Institutions’.
‘The Student Ombudsperson now plays a more active and relevant role in the context of higher education and holding this meeting, in the year that UMinho celebrates its 50th anniversary, is a way of honouring this journey,’ explained Rosa Maria Vasconcelos. She continued that the two days at UMinho ’will be a space for sharing ideas, experiences and reflections that will certainly contribute to the expansion and consolidation of our networks by contributing to the dissemination of ideas and practices that contribute to building a better, fairer and more equal education.’
The two-day meeting had the high patronage of the Presidency of the Republic and is part of UMinho’s 50th anniversary programme.
The initiative was attended by the Portuguese Minister of Education, Fernando Alexandre, and was a space for reflection and evaluation of the work carried out by the Student Ombuds Offices in Portugal, which were created 15 years ago.
The first day featured two discussion sessions.
The first session addressed ‘Interactions with the Ombudsperson: When and how?’ and was attended by the president of the Council of Rectors of Portuguese Universities, as well as the vice-coordinators of the Coordinating Council of Polytechnic Higher Education Institutes and the Portuguese Association of Private Higher Education.
The second session discussed ‘Interactions between the Ombuds Offices: when we are many and thus a network is born’ and was attended by the honorary ombudsman of RPE and former ombudsman of the University of Aveiro, Alexandre Cruz, the honorary ombudsman of RPE and former ombudsperson of the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, Augusta Mata, the former Secretary of State for Higher Education, Fernanda Rollo, and the first president of the Executive Committee of RPE and former ombudsperson of the Polytechnic Institute of Porto, Berta Batista.
In the afternoon, there was a discussion on the institutional relationships between the Ombuds offices, in the roundtable ‘Consolidating Institutional Relationships: Continuity and Innovation Towards Excellence’. This preceded the presentation of the conclusions of the day’s work.
On the second day, the final discussion featured the presentation of international partner networks. ‘Always networking: in Portugal and around the world’ was the theme of the session that brought together representatives from the RPE, the State Conference of University Ombudsmen (CEDU) in Spain, the Ibero-American Network (RidDU) and the local working groups involving ombudspersons at the universities of Vigo, Santiago de Compostela and A Coruña.
Following this debate, the closing session was held by the Minister of Education, Fernando Alexandre.
The National Meeting of Portuguese Student Ombuds ended with the RPE General Assembly. Among other things, the General Assembly elected the association’s new governing bodies. Rosa Maria Vasconcelos was elected for the presidency of the Portuguese network.