The director of the Faculty of Law of Coimbra, Pedro Gonçalves, leads a list for the election of members of the assembly for the revision of the statutes of the University of Coimbra, scheduled for October 20. The suffrage will be contested by at least one more list, led by vice-rector Luís Neves, who however did not reveal his lineup, invoking respect for the institutional procedure.
Pedro Gonçalves's list advocates a model for the election of the successor of rector Amílcar Falcão based on a more comprehensive representativeness than currently established by the General Council of the UC. This body, composed of only 35 members, is responsible for the choice of the rector and defends the application of the previous RJIES, which was in force for 19 years and has just been replaced by a new version approved by the Assembly of the Republic.
Luís Neves, the "number two" of the outgoing rectoral team and member of the Management Board of the UC, is an advocate for the continuity of the current closed election format. Pedro Gonçalves, accompanied by other academics such as Helena Freitas and Duarte Nuno Vieira, advocates that the choice of the next rector be made through a more representative process.
Pedro Gonçalves declared that it is the responsibility of the General Council of the UC, "with urgency, to avoid causing harm" to the institution, reacting to a refusal by the president of the GC to review the rector election model, scheduled for the first quarter of 2027.
