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Portugal Students and Intellectuals
Students and intellectuals in Portugal were long
influential
out of proportion to their numbers. This influence was a
consequence of higher education's exclusivity. The small
percentage of the population who passed the difficult
university
entrance exams was widely respected, and Portugal's lower
classes
looked up to educated persons as their intellectual and
political
mentors.
Intellectuals and students were among the leading
advocates
of a republic in 1910. Although hostile to the republic,
Salazar
was also an intellectual and recruited so many of his
fellow
university colleagues into his administration that it was
sometimes called a "regime of professors." Much of the
opposition
to Salazar and Caetano was made up of intellectuals and
students
who formed the "study groups" that served as the nuclei
for what
later became political parties. Intellectuals and students
were
very active in the Revolution of 1974, and, as of the
beginning
of the 1990s, many intellectuals served in high positions
in
government and the political parties.
Universities in Portugal were traditionally heavily
politicized, especially during the revolutionary upheavals
of the
1970s. Socialist, communist, and other far-left groups
competed
for dominance on the campuses (mainly at the historical
universities in Lisbon and Coimbra) and in publishing
houses,
newspapers, and study centers where intellectuals
congregated.
Rising enrollment pressures, the competition of new
regional
universities and technical institutes, and the desire to
find
good jobs in the more affluent Portugal of the 1980s
sapped the
students' enthusiasm for political action. Many preferred
to
finish their courses and degrees and secure a rewarding
professional position rather than to engage in constant
political
activity. As a result, Portugal's institutions of higher
learning
became calmer politically; they also became better, more
serious
universities.
Data as of January 1993
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