The regulations for the National Competition for Access to Higher Education were published this month, requiring a single criterion for the contingent of students with disabilities.
This quota provides that there will be 4% of vacancies fixed in the first phase of the national access competition aimed at these students with disabilities.
A medical certificate of multipurpose disability is required that assesses disability equal to or greater than 60%. Students who meet this criterion will automatically be admitted to this contingent and will be able to compete for priority places for candidates with disabilities.
According to , until now, the regulation allowed access to students who, without having a disability equal to or greater than 60%, had a degree of disability that meant they benefited from measures to support learning in secondary education.
These students, where there were, for example, people with attention deficits, dyslexia and other special needsthey had to submit a medical statement, a technical-pedagogical report that included the additional support measures they benefited from at school and which were justified by the disability in question.
Then, the situations were evaluated case by case by a commission of experts, composed by order of the director general of Higher Education. If the decision was favorable, these candidates would not compete for the general vacancies but for the priority contingent.
“The main objective is to clarify and standardize the access criteria for this contingent, ensuring an objective, transparent and legally consistent assessment of the situations covered”, said the Mystery of Education, Science and Technology.
Furthermore, to access measures such as the award of scholarships, tax benefits or social protection and support, it is this certificate that is used.
Finally, the Ministry argues that the technical-pedagogical report that was previously requested as proof has the “purpose frame support measures in the educational and learning context, and was not designed as an instrument for certifying disability for the purposes of accessing the priority quota for candidates with disabilities”.
