In mid-September, the Council of Rectors of Portuguese Universities (CRUP) received a proposed protocol to be signed with the Agency for Integration, Migration, and Asylum (AIMA), under which higher education institutions (HEIs) would be responsible for "collecting, analysing, and submitting the necessary documentation" to issue visas and residence permits to foreign students, professors, and researchers.

The institutions would be required to collect "personal data," such as addresses or telephone numbers, and send them to AIMA, according to the collaboration proposal seen by Lusa.

Higher education institutions would also be required to submit all necessary documents to process authorization or visa applications, and must first "certify the veracity and reliability" of these documents.

The protocol text assigns eleven obligations to institutions, which would also have to "make every effort" to ensure applicants are present at AIMA branches and even "provide as much advance notice as possible" if they were unable to attend.

Concerns

The proposal was submitted to CRUP, which, in a first meeting, raised "some concerns."

The matter is now in the hands of CRUP's Internationalization Committee, which will comment and present suggestions, Paulo Jorge Ferreira, president of the council of rectors, told Lusa.

"There are serious problems here to overcome. We are asking for personal and sensitive information from students, professors, and researchers to be shared or passed on to others," warned Paulo Jorge Ferreira, questioning "the legitimacy and legal framework that allows institutions to pass on personal information."

Verifying the authenticity of documents could be another problem: "It's not up to universities to verify the legality of documents."

"Universities are not law enforcement agencies, nor do they have trained staff to perform this type of verification," he added, noting that additional staff would need to be hired to operationalize the proposed model.

Furthermore, institutions would also have to develop a series of other activities and tasks, such as promoting initiatives to publicize the law on foreigners or ensuring the attendance of interested parties at AIMA training sessions.

Paulo Jorge Ferreira emphasized that "the protocol is optional and only those who want to adhere can adhere," but the State Budget only covers about 72% of human resources costs, meaning the proposal would further worsen the institutions' financial situation.

Despite the criticism, the president of CRUP acknowledged that "the proposal is very well-intentioned," as it seeks to address a problem experienced by Portuguese HEIs, which are increasingly receiving international students.

International students already represent about 5% of all higher education students in Portugal.

"The arrival of foreign talent in the country is very welcome, and one of the obstacles is precisely the bureaucratic burden of legalizing students' status in our country. The difficulties in legalizing their status discourage students from contacting us, and this is an obstacle to internationalization," he said.

Therefore, CRUP will invite AIMA to a meeting later this month to discuss the protocol and present some proposals.

Work “overload”

For the rector of the University of Aveiro, the solution to the problem cannot be "overloading HEIs with more tasks."

As an alternative, Paulo Jorge Ferreira recalled a measure already in place at his university, which in 2019 welcomed a Local Migrant Integration Support Center (CLAIM) to support its international community and "relieve local CLAIMs of the burden the university was causing."

In the rector's opinion, HEIs could provide space on their campuses to provide this service, which "would be staffed by agency staff" or trained for these tasks: "We would provide the space and they would provide the service."

Lusa contacted the president of the Coordinating Council of Higher Technical Institutes, who said she had not yet received the document, which also establishes the same obligations for polytechnic institutes.

AIMA was also contacted by Lusa ,but has not yet responded.