Universidade do Porto

The University of Porto is among the 150 best universities in Europe and the world top 400 (Academic Ranking of World Universities 2014). With 14 schools (plus a business school) distributed over 3 campuses, 16 libraries and 14 museums, it is the second largest university and scientific research institution in Portugal, serving around 32,000 students (around 1500 from foreign countries), 2400 teaching/research staff.
The Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences (FPCEUP) was created in 1980 and it is the school where research and higher education in Psychology and Education is carried out. About 1500 students attend undergraduate, master and doctoral programmes and over 1000 persons attend every year to in-service courses in psychology and education issues. FPCEUP has been able to attract an increasing number of grants, as well as students, faculty and researchers through partnership agreements with international and national institutions. FPCEUP is committed to top level education and research and to the promotion of an institutional culture addressed to well-being and social progress. FPCEUP has two R&D units funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT).
The Centre for Research and Intervention in Education (CIIE), established in 1988, is one of those research centres. It develops research on key historical, contemporary and emerging issues of educational and social change and processes, in order to broaden the role of education in promoting equity, social inclusion and active citizenship.
Over the years, CIIE has been engaged in a wide range of national and international research and intervention projects and has developed considerable expertise and a growing reputation on: educational and social policies; social and educational inequalities; initial education, professional development and skilled employment; teacher education and identities; curriculum studies; educational evaluation, leadership and school management; pedagogy in higher education; further educationandlifelong learning; early school leaving and school achievement; school rankings; ethnographies of professional knowledge; school improvement; youth and children cultures; citizenship education; civic and political participation; migrants and migration; education and health; gender and sexuality; history of school processes, methods and materials; multicultural education; community intervention; deaf culture; art education.
CIIE was ranked among the top three research centres in Education in Portugal, for the quality of its research, in the last national research assessment exercise, which took place in 2013-2014.
The Centre develops research on key issues of educational and social change and processes, in order to broaden the role of education in promoting equity, social inclusion and citizenship. Over the years, CIIE has been engaged in a wide range of national and international research and intervention projects and has developed considerable expertise and a growing reputation on: young people cultures and pathways; exclusion and civic and political participation; early school leaving and school achievement; intercultural education and migration; professional development and teacher education and identities; educational evaluation, leadership and school management; pedagogy in higher education and lifelong learning; deaf culture, among other areas.
The main objectives of CIIE are: to enhance excellent research, by promoting the range and quality of collaborative research; to support the training of young researchers and professionals on the education field, especially through the development of high-quality doctoral programmes (e.g. DPE-UP, the Doctoral Programme in Education, was recently assessed as Exceptional by the FCT international panel – it’s developed jointly with UERJ, the University of Rio de Janeiro, one of the three top leading Brazilian universities in education, according to the Brazilian Research Evaluation Agency – CAPES); to strengthen international knowledge exchange, by deepening existing participation in transnational networks and collaboration, bringing about new consortia and collaborative research that match global research priorities; to contribute to the design and influence on public policies in education; to strengthen research capacity, by promoting the share of research achievements and outcomes and contribute to the knowledge transfer; to provide expertise, assessment, and consulting services to both state and local government agencies, enterprises, schools, ...

CIIE/FPCEUP has built extensive experience in participating in collaborative research projects of international significance, which support excellence in research in education, such as: (ongoing) “Reducing Early School Leaving in Europe” (funded by FP7, European Commission), studying the mechanisms and processes that influence a pupil’s decision to leave school early and their decision to enroll in alternative learning arenas; (ongoing) “Universities in the Knowledge Economy” (ITN/Marie Curie, FP7) that is training a networked group of researchers to be future research leaders, and producing research regarding the changing roles and scope of universities in Europe and Asia-Pacific Rim; “EU-USR – Comparative Research on University Social Responsibility in Europe and Development of a Community Reference Framework” (EC) that aimed to create, through a bottom-up approach that starts from some leading EU universities, an European model to enhance social responsibility of universities; (ongoing) “Quality and Enhanced Access to Higher Education (FCT and CAPES, Brazil), that explores the practices and the effects of policies of HE in Portugal and Brazil; “Processes Influencing Democratic Ownership and Participation” (FP7, EC) that studied processes influencing citizens' (young people, women, minorities and migrants) civic and political engagement and participation; “Initial Training of Helping Professionals and Identities of Trainers” (FCT), which studied key issues in undergraduate courses for primary teachers and for nurses; several Erasmus Intensive Programmes (Education for Sustainable Development; Challenges to Identity in the Context of Globalization; Educational Contributions to Cohesion and Wellbeing...); “Excellence and Innovation in Higher Education” (European Social Fund) that aimed to promote excellence in learning processes; (ongoing) “Supporting Lifelong Learning with ICT Inquiry-Based Education” (LLP, EC), which will provide an e-learning content management system in 4 languages devoted to information-centred courses to upper-secondary school, undergraduate students and unemployed young people; “SIRIUS – European Policy Network on the Education of Children and Young People with a Migrant Background” (LLP, EC) that was focused on improving educational measures addressed to migrant students within the frame of EU; (ongoing) “NAOS – Professional Capacity Dealing with Diversity” (KA2, Erasmus+, EC), aiming to strengthen professional capacity in the partner countries and their respective schools among groups of migrant children.