The Municipality of Cantanhede invested over 100 thousand euros in the new student residence for students of the School of Health Technologies of the Polytechnic University of Coimbra, installed in the former premises of Hotel Branco. The municipality approved a support of 20,978.50 euros to APPACDM de Coimbra for equipping the rooms with beds, bedside tables, desks, chairs and lamps, after already having allocated 79,569 euros in March for renovation works on the building.
The residence has capacity for 30 students and will support students of the Occupational Therapy degree program, which begins operations in the 2026/2027 academic year at the campus of the Centro de Medicina de Reabilitação da Região Centro – Rovisco Pais. The 34 available places for this course were fully filled, with the cutoff score for the last admitted student being 13.8 points.
The creation of the residence results from a tripartite memorandum of understanding signed in 2025 between the Municipality of Cantanhede, the former Polytechnic Institute of Coimbra and the Coimbra Local Health Unit, with the objective of creating a rehabilitation teaching hospital in the area of Health Technologies at Rovisco Pais.
The mayor of Cantanhede, Helena Teodósio, considered that this investment represents a step toward "education, affordable housing, youth, local economy and the demographic future of the municipality," highlighting that hosting higher education in the county can be "one of the options with the greatest medium and long-term strategic impact."
