The Government of Portugal took this Wednesday the official decision to begin the procedures for the creation of the University of Bragança and do Norte Interior, elevating the former Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (IPB) to university status. This will be the second university in the Trás-os-Montes region, joining the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, based in Vila Real. The Minister of Education, Fernando Alexandre, announced the decision after a technical analysis, noting that the step is natural following the work developed over the past decades.
Orlando Rodrigues, who had been president of the IPB since 2018, now assumes the position of first rector of the new university. In his first speech as leader of the institution, Rodrigues praised the "act of courage" in achieving a university aspiration with very deep roots, acknowledging that "doing justice is not always easy." The rector highlighted that "there were deferred expectations, promises that remained unfulfilled," but the academic community continued to work and now the Government has given a concrete response to that persistence.
The IPB had been renamed on August 1st as the Polytechnic University of Bragança, as part of a review of polytechnic institutes that has already resulted in new universities in Leiria and Porto. Orlando Rodrigues defined the three pillars of the new university: attraction and retention of global talent, science and education with impact oriented toward quality knowledge, and the transformation of the territory through knowledge. The rector expressed the ambition to create a university project of international scope that contributes to students finding reasons to stay, former residents having opportunities to return, and researchers and companies from anywhere in the world recognizing the territory as a promising place to invest.
