Instalation Map

 

• General Information
• Student Worker
• Association Leader
• High Performance Athlete
• Student Parents
• Special Educational Needs
• Military Personnel
• Firefighter
• Religious Practitioner
• Student Athlete of U.Porto

General Information

In certain situations established by law, students can enjoy special benefits, as long as they prove that they meet the requirements to request a specific status. The benefits and procedures to request the various special statuses and conditions granted by FEUP are detailed below.

Student Worker

A student worker at UP is anyone who attends a bachelor, post-graduation, master, or doctoral degree taught at the University of Porto and who:

• is an employee at a public or private entity, regardless of the employment relationship;
• is self-employed; or
• attends a vocational training course, professional internship or youth temporary occupation programme that lasts for six or more months.

Rights

1- Student workers that are granted the corresponding status are not subject to:

1. the obligation to attend a minimum number of curricular units in a certain cycle of studies, nor to periods of limitation or to regulations that involve the change of educational institution;
2. any legal provisions that make academic performance dependent on the attendance of a minimum number of classes per curricular unit;
3. the limit of examinations they can take in the supplementary examination period.

2- Without prejudice to the provisions of the preceding paragraph b), student workers are not exempt from carrying out assessment elements, including of distributed evaluation, that are a minimum precondition to access the final examination, if any, and in accordance with the established in the corresponding curricular unit form.

3- Exceptionally, on founded request by the student workers to the director of the organic unit (after the Academic Affairs Council gives its opinion), any distributed evaluation tests may be specially scheduled for other dates, different from the original ones, or alternative ways of assessment may be considered.

4- In the case of curricular units that expressly use distributed evaluation without final examination as the only type of assessment for all enrolled students, student workers are only entitled to one supplementary examination period for that curricular unit if that is explicitly provided for in the CU form.

5- In each academic year, student workers are entitled to request up to 5 examinations (or specific global tests) in the periods for students with special status or conditions, in curricular units with evaluation made by final examination only or with distributed evaluation with final examination, or with specific global tests intended for student workers, in addition to the ones set out for ordinary and supplementary examination periods, with a maximum of two examinations/tests per curricular unit.

6- Student workers have priority when selecting timetables from among the existing possibilities, but limited to the period annually established to exercise that priority.

7- An organic unit with outside normal working hours must ensure that examinations and evaluation tests, as well as minimum support service to student workers, take place in the same schedule whenever possible.

8- Student workers are entitled to make-up classes or pedagogical support deemed essential by the competent bodies of the respective organic units, on a proposal by the teacher or the coordinator.

9- The provisions of the preceding numbers cannot be accumulated with any other regime with the same purposes, namely regarding examinations to be taken.

Termination of Rights

1- The rights granted to student workers will be terminated in the following situations:

1. Academic underperformance in two consecutive or three interpolated academic years;
2. Making false statements regarding facts that are decisive for granting the status or facts that constitute rights, as well as their use for abusive purposes, without prejudice to other legally applicable measures.

2- For the purpose of paragraph a) of the preceding number and of Article 5(2), good academic performance corresponds to a passing grade in at least half of the curricular units the student worker is registered or enrolled in.

3- A student worker who does not comply with the preceding number as a result of having been on maternity or paternity leave for not less than one month, or due to an accident at work or occupational disease, duly proven to the organic unit, is considered to have good academic performance.

4- The student worker may be granted these rights only one more time in the academic year following the one in which, for the first time, there was termination of the rights provided by Law No. 59/08, of 11^th September (approving the regime of employment contract in public functions), and Law No. 7/2009, of 12^th February (approving the revision of the Labour Code), or by the current Regulation.

Status Request Procedure

1 - Recognition of the student worker status is dependent on delivery, at the corresponding organic unit office, of a request made in a proper template provided by the organic unit (only available in Portuguese) and addressed to its director, together with the following documents:

1. Requesting students who are civil servants or work for an entity of public administration must hand in a declaration from their service, duly signed by the respective officer and authenticated with the embossed seal, which must include their Social Security number or beneficiary number of the Caixa Geral de Aposentações (civil servants pension fund);
2. Requesting students who work for a private entity must hand in an updated signed declaration from their employer, duly authenticated with the stamp or notarised signature, which must include their Social Security number or, alternatively, a declaration certifying that they subscribe a sickness insurance fund or even an updated accounting statement of their Social Security deductions;
3. Requesting students who are self-employed must hand in a declaration of commencement / resumption of activity issued by the tax office in that year of commencement or, in the following years, an income statement that must not have a zero income value, AND supporting documents of their social security registration or exemption thereof;
4. Requesting students who attend a vocational training course or a youth temporary occupation programme (that lasts for six or more months) must hand in a declaration from the responsible entity, duly authenticated with the stamp or notarised signature, and stating the corresponding duration.
5. Students who are managers or administrators of commercial companies, considering the extension of the legal or contractual duties they take on, may be granted the student worker status, as long as they provide the following supporting documents attesting that they perform that role: recent certified copy from the said company (available at the Commercial Registry Office) stating the nomination for the role and corresponding duration, as well as a copy of Form 22 (income statement).

2 - Requesting students who work at the University of Porto are not required to present any supporting documents, and merely have to indicate that fact in the request referred to in the preceding number.

3 - When the documents referred to in Number 1 prove to be insufficient, the competent Academic Services of each organic unit can, at any time, request other documents that prove the status the requesting student intends to have recognised.

Note: Student workers at U.Porto are also students who are attending a professional internship, duly recognised as such, in accordance with the Ministerial Order No. 92/2011, of 28^th February.
In these cases, the request for granting the student worker status must be accompanied by a copy of the professional internship written contract.

Deadline

1- The request and documents identified in the preceding article must be submitted upon enrolment / registration or, if this is not possible, at most within 20 working days from the beginning of the academic year.

2- The student may also request the granting of the status for the second semester of the academic year, provided the request and documents are submitted within 20 working days from the beginning of the second semester.

Outright Rejection

1- The following are cause for outright rejection of the request:

• Delivery of the request outside the deadlines set in the preceding section;
• Incomplete instruction of the request;
• Failure to deliver the documents or to provide additional information within the deadline set by the services, in accordance with the provisions of Article 3(4);
• Failure to fulfil the conditions required.

2- Requests from student workers with academic underperformance, as defined in Article 9(2) of the current Regulation, will also be rejected.

3- The provisions of No. 1, paragraph b), do not apply to situations where it is duly attested that the reason for the incomplete instruction of the request cannot be attributed to the student.

Decision

1- Decisions regarding requests submitted are the responsibility of the director of the respective organic unit, after consulting the legal and statutorily competent bodies.

2- The interested party will be notified of the decision within 15 working days.

Effects

1- After a favourable decision to the request for granting the status, it will have effect from the start date of the academic year, without prejudice to the provisions of the following number.

2- In the case referred to in Article 4(2), the benefits under the current Regulation are exclusively applicable to the curricular units of the second semester in which students are registered, including the curricular units for which they can take the examination in the supplementary period.

Research Grant Holder:

The student worker status is incompatible with the condition of research grant holder, in accordance with Article 4 of Law No. 40/2004, of 18^th August, and Article 25 of the Regulation on Advanced Training and Qualification of Human Resources of FCT (Foundation for Science and Technology), as well as any other grant holder situation that requires exclusive dedication.

Involuntary Unemployment:

Those to whom the student worker status has already been granted, in accordance with the current Regulation, and later become involuntarily unemployed, keep the status until the end of the current academic year, provided they present at the corresponding organic unit office, within thirty days after the fact, a supporting document of registration at the employment centre.

If students are still involuntarily unemployed at the beginning of the academic year, upon registration for the academic year they must provide evidence that the situation continues and indicate the corresponding limit date.

Informal Carer:

The Student Worker status at U. Porto can be recognized for those who benefit from the Informal Carer status and have no active employment, either working for others or self-employed. For the Student Worker status to be granted, the student must submit a copy of the Informal Carer identification card issued by Social Security that states the recognition and duration of the Informal Carer status.

Association Leader

This status can be requested by leaders of youth and student associations, recognised under Law No. 23/2006, of 23rd June, as well as the respective federations.
The youth association leader status is only intended for members of the governing bodies of youth associations based in the national territory and registered in the RNAJ (national registry of youth associations), and the board of the association is responsible for indicating to the IPJ (Portuguese Youth Institute) which members of the governing bodies should be covered by this status.

Benefits

Youth association leaders have the right to:

• Have their absences annulled whenever their presence is required at meetings of the bodies they are members of and those meetings conflict with class schedules (1);
• Have their absences annulled whenever their presence is required at events of strong interest for the association (1);
• Request five examination per curricular unit in each academic year, in addition to the examinations of the normal and special periods already set out in the applicable laws (see information about examinations);
• Postpone the presentation of assignments and written reports, in accordance with the internal rules in effect at the educational institution;
• Arrange with the teacher, or in accordance with the internal rules in effect, to take written tests on different dates if they have been unable to take them because of unavoidable activities of the association (2).

(1) - Annulment of absences is dependent on the presentation of a supporting document attesting their presence at the above-mentioned activities to the competent body of the educational institution.

(2) - Association leaders must hand in a supporting document of the occurrence of an activity within forty-eight hours after becoming aware of it.

Status Request Procedure

Association leaders must hand in a copy of the minutes of the inauguration at the Academic Services within thirty working days after taking office.

Students must also ask the IPJ (Portuguese Youth Institute) to send a declaration of their Youth Association Leader Status to FEUP (Note: if this declaration is not received within the above-mentioned 30 days, the status will only be granted after reception of the declaration).

The benefits can be enjoyed during the students’ term of office as association leader and up to one year after it has ended, provided this does not exceed the length time the student actually held office. The period during which benefits can be enjoyed starts from the date of the first examination request.

High Performance Athlete

Benefits

High performance athletes have the right to:

• Choose the timetable and attendance regime that best suit their sports preparation;
• Have their absences annulled during the period of preparation and participation in sports competitions (1);
• When the period of participation in sports competitions coincides with assessment tests, these must be reschedule to new dates that do not conflict with the sports activities. Special assessment periods may also be established. This benefit can be extended to include the period of preparation leading up to the competition in the case of top-level athletes. The rescheduling of assessment tests and the setting of special assessment periods must be requested by the students (1);
• Transfer to another educational institution when the maintenance of their sports activity demands it (1);
• Have a teacher (accompanying teacher) appointed to monitor the evolution of their academic performance, detect possible difficulties and suggest measures to address them;
• Make-up classes, namely the ones corresponding to the annulled absences, when required.

The availability of academic support measures is dependent on the academic performance, taking into account the different variables that form part of the academic and sports activity of the athlete.

(1) - To enjoy this benefit, students must hand in a declaration issued by the IDP (Portuguese Sports Institute) at the Academic Services.

Status Request Procedure

At the beginning of the academic year, the IDP must send a list of students who are high performance athletes to the Ministry of Education (Article 13 of decree-Law No. 272/2009, of 1^st October).

To enjoy the above-mentioned benefits signalled with (1), students must hand in a declaration issued by the IDP (Portuguese Sports Institute) at the Academic Services.

The status is requested for the whole year upon registration or within the following 30 days.

Student Parents

This status covers parents who are students attending higher education, in particular young pregnant women, women who have recently given birth or women who are breastfeeding.

Pregnant student - student in the gestation period.

Puerperal student - student who has recently given birth, including the 98 days that immediately follow childbirth.

Breastfeeding student - student who is breastfeeding her child.

To be granted any of these statuses, the student must inform FEUP in writing and present a medical certificate.

Benefits

Pregnant students have the right to:

• Transfer to another educational institution;
• Register in educational institutions outside their area of residence;
• Take examinations in a special period, in accordance with the academic calendar, namely if childbirth coincides with the examination period, and in dully justified cases;
• Exemption from class attendance to go to medical appointments, whenever these cannot be scheduled outside of class hours.

Student mothers have the right to:

• Exemption from class attendance for a period of 100 consecutive days, 90 of which following childbirth; the remaining can be fully or partially used before or after childbirth.
• In case of miscarriage, exemption from class attendance for a period of 30 days, renewable under medical prescription.
• Students who have recently given birth and are breastfeeding, exemption from class attendance to go to medical appointments, whenever these cannot be scheduled outside of class hours. Also exemption from class attendance during breastfeeding periods, subject to the submission of a declaration stating that they are breastfeeding.
• If they have adopted children under the age of 15, exemption from class attendance for a period of 100 days to accompany the minor.
• Exemption from class attendance for 30 days to provide immediate and necessary assistance to birth, adopted, or step-children under the age of 10 in case of illness, disability or accident. The period of exemption will be reduced to 15 days if the children are over 10 years old;
• Take examinations in a special period, to be agreed with the academic services, namely if childbirth coincides with the examination period;
• Transfer to another educational institution;
• Register in educational institutions outside their area of residence.

Student fathers have the right to:

• Exemption from class attendance for a period of 5 working days, consecutive or interpolated, in the 1st month following childbirth;
• Exemption from class attendance for a period equal to the one the mother would be entitled to, except for the 6 weeks of maternity leave following childbirth, and also to take examinations in a special period, in accordance with the academic calendar, in the following cases: physical or psychological incapacity of the mother, death of the mother, or by joint decision of the parents, subject to the submission of a request and the presentation of the respective supporting documents.

Student parents with children under the age of 3 also have the right to:

• A special absence regime under which, when duly attested, absences are considered justified for prenatal medical appointments, childbirth, breastfeeding, child illness and assistance;
• Postpone the presentation or submission of assignments and take tests at a later date whenever it is impossible to comply with the deadlines set out or attend the tests for any of the reasons mentioned in the preceding paragraph;
• Exemption from legal provisions that make academic performance dependent on the attendance of a minimum number of classes;
• Exemption from the obligation to register in a minimum number of curricular units in higher education.

Annulment of absences, access to make-up classes and taking examinations in a special period are dependent on the submission of a supporting document attesting to the existence of conflicts with the school hours that prevent students from attending.

See the applicable legislation (only available in Portuguese).

Status Request Procedure

Pregnant students must hand in the following documents at the Academic Services:

• Medical certificate attesting to the pregnancy, including the estimated date of delivery;
• Supporting document regarding medical appointments for justification of absences, whenever they occur.

Student parents must hand in the following documents at the Academic Services:

• Copy of the birth certificate;
• Supporting document attesting to the overlap of medical appointments with school hours for justification of absences.

Special Educational Needs

Students with SEN (Special Educational Needs) are those who experience difficulties in learning and participating within the academic context, resulting from the dynamic interaction of environmental factors (physical, social, attitudinal) and/or from hearing, visual, and mobility impairments, physical health problems, and others, provided they are dully attested by experts in those domains.

Benefits

Attendance/pedagogical support

• Students with SEN are entitled to a set of specialised supports and to adjustments in the teaching/learning process in order to meet their needs;
• Specific measures for each student with SEN are suggested in a technical report;
• • Whenever there are misalignments between the demands of the course they are attending and the type of support they are getting, students with SEN can change to another course, taking into account the number of places available for that purpose.

Type of evaluation

• Students with SEN can be evaluated in ways and under conditions adequate to their specific situation, and those must be presented in the technical report.

Status Request Procedure

• Upon enrolment, students must go to the Orientation and Integration Office (GOI) and request the granting of the status.
• The request can be submitted at a different time if the students’ special needs are only identified later on, or if they result from events occurring after the beginning of the academic year.
• The said request must include the individual educational programme of the previous level of education (whenever possible) and supporting technical reports or opinions issued by experts (physicians, psychologists, speech therapists or other relevant for each specific case). All of the supports given by other public or private institutions with the same purpose must also be reported.

The reports or opinions referred to in the preceding section must detail the type and extent of disability, as well as its implications for the work students will have to carry out while attending university, namely:

• In the case of visual impairments, an assessment of the visual acuity and field of vision for each eye, with the best possible correction;
• In the case of hearing impairments, an assessment of the hearing abilities for each ear, with the best possible correction;
• In the case of mobility impairments, information about the affected limbs;
• In the case of chronic diseases, information about their implications on the academic performance.

Whenever deemed necessary, other documents may be requested to complete each student's individual file or to prove that the clinical condition still persists, when it is subject to change.

In the case of students with permanent SEN, the above-mentioned procedure is done only once. If the SEN are temporary, the procedure is done on an annual basis.

Military Personnel

This status applies to military personnel working under contract or volunteer.

Benefits

Military personnel, whether under contract or volunteer, benefit from the provisions mentioned in the student worker status, safeguarding the specificities arising from military service established in Article 3 of the Regulation on incentives for military service under contract or volunteer, approved by Decree-Law No. 320-A/2000, of 15th December.

See the applicable legislation (only available in Portuguese).

Firefighter

Benefits

Firefighters from professional, mixed or volunteer fire brigades have the right to:

• Have their absences annulled whenever their presence is required by the station commander for operational purposes;
• Arrange with the teacher, or in accordance with the internal rules in effect, to take written tests on different dates if they prove they have been unable to take them in order to fulfil operational activities.

Firefighters from professional, mixed or volunteer fire brigades with at least two years of actual service also have the right to request up to five examinations in each academic year, in addition to the examinations of the normal and special periods already set out in the applicable laws, with a maximum of two examinations for each curricular unit.

Status Request Procedure

Students have to hand in at the Academic Services a supporting document attesting that they are members of a professional, mixed or volunteer fire brigade, with at least two years of actual service. The status is requested for the whole year upon registration or within the following 30 days; or, for the second semester, in the 30 days preceding the beginning of that semester. See the applicable legislation (only available in Portuguese).

Religious Practitioner

Benefits

Religious practitioners, under Law no. 16/2001, of June 22^th:

• are exempt from attending classes on established days of rest and worship of their religious faith, without prejudice to the regular provisions of good academic performance;
• if the date set for the examination coincides with established days of rest or worship of their religious faith, religious practitioners can take the exam on a 2^nd call, or in a new call, on a day that does not raise the same objection.

Status Request Procedure

Students have to hand in at the Academic Services a supporting document attesting that they are members of a church or religious community, which, in the previous year, must have informed the competent member of government of its days and times of rest and worship for the current year (Article 14 of Law No. 16/2001, of 22nd June).

The status is requested for the whole year upon registration or within the following 30 days; or, for the second semester, in the 30 days preceding the beginning of that semester.

Student Athlete of U.Porto

Student Athlete of the University of Porto is anyone who falls within the scope of the paragraphs or requirements set out in Article 4 of the Regulation of the student athlete status of U.Porto (only available in Portuguese).

Benefits

Students included in the List of Student Athletes of U.Porto and that request the status are granted the rights set out in Article 9 of the corresponding Regulation, in accordance with the category awarded.

Duties

The duties of a Student Athlete of U.Porto are set out in Article 8 of the corresponding Regulation.

Status request procedure (2020/2021)

1. In order to be awarded the student athlete status, students must hand in at the Academic Services of their Faculty a request made in a proper template addressed to the respective Dean (alternatively, students can use their institutional e-mail to send the request to percurso.academico@fe.up.pt).
2. The request must be handed in upon enrolment/registration or, if this is not possible, within 10 working days from publication or updating of the said list, as per Article 13 of the Regulation of the student athlete status of U.Porto.
3. Only students who are included in the list mentioned in the preceding paragraph can request this status.
4. The granting of the Student Athlete status of U.Porto is the responsibility of the Dean of the Faculty, upon verification of the academic performance as set out in Article 11 and verification that the student is included in the list mentioned in Article 13.
5. The student shall be notified of the decision regarding the status within 15 working days.

 

Duration and effects

The status is valid for one academic year and shall take effect from the moment it is granted.