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Today, 50 years have passed since the creation of my school, Iscte, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa. It was the first step in the most important reform of Portuguese universities in the 20th century, known as the Veiga Simão Reform, supported and induced by progressive and developmental sectors of the authoritarian regime. Democracy, after April 1974, confirmed and updated the meaning of the reform, creating the necessary conditions to achieve its modernizing objectives.
50 years ago, Iscte started with 250 students, today it has 13,000. There were two undergraduate courses, today there are 25, plus more than 50 master's and doctoral courses. Despite this growth, it remained a university institute specialized in its initial areas, to which it joined others, seeking to deepen the quality of what it does and fulfill its mission of public service. From the outset, the close articulation between teaching and research activities, established at the founding moment with the involvement, as teachers, of young researchers from the Social Research Office (GIS) created and coordinated by Adérito Sedas Nunes. Then, the orientation towards valuing the world of work and companies, as well as public sector institutions, guided by intervention, relevance and application of the knowledge it produces. Finally, pluralism and high degrees of internal freedom, autonomy and diversity have allowed for a long trajectory of dynamism and innovation. With eight new degree courses, unique in Portugal, it took university education to the second most populous municipality in the country and the one where the largest number of young people live. There are very few. The war mobilizes young people and does not allow them to continue studying. War destroys human lives, entire cities, infrastructures, and also institutions, such as universities, which take decades to build, but which can disappear in a short period of time.
How lucky we are! But also the responsibility to preserve and strengthen the institutions that we received as an inheritance from previous generations. class="x_MsoNormal">(in: JN 15.12.2022)
Iscte - A space to grow.
