Aerospace Engineering is once again the higher education course with the highest average entry grade, in a group of 14 courses where only students with an average of more than 18 marks got a place.

According to data provided by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education (MCTES), the Aerospace Engineering course at the University of Minho has the highest entry grade, where the last student to enter had an average of 18.86 (on a scale of zero to 20).

The Aerospace Engineering course at the Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon has the second highest mark (18.68), followed by the Medicine course at the Abel Salazar Biomedical Sciences Institute at the University of Porto, where the freshman with the lowest mark had an average of 18.68.

In 4th place again comes the University of Porto, with the course at the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management (average of 18.55), followed by another Aerospace Engineering course, at the University of Aveiro, where the last entrant had an average of 18.52.

Demand for the University of Minho’s courses, as in previous years, was very high, as can be seen from the data shared by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education, with 97% of the 2,967 places available at the institution having been filled.

Analysing the results in detail, we can see that the last candidates placed on 10 of the University’s study cycles had the highest national ranking. We are referring to the Public Administration, Visual Arts, Biology and Geology, Accounting, Product Design, Aerospace Engineering, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Cultural Studies, Marketing, Optometry and Vision Sciences programmes.

It should also be noted that nine of UMinho’s study programmes had a minimum entry grade of 17 or higher. The course with the highest final grade was Aerospace Engineering (188.6), followed by Medicine (182.8), Law (177.4), Industrial Engineering and Management (173.8), Law after work (173.2), Marketing (172.2), Management (171.8) and Psychology and Biomedical Engineering (171.2). It should be noted that 22 of the institution’s undergraduate programmes scored 16 points or more.

For the 2023/24 academic year, UMinho offered a total of 3,013 places in the national competition and the local competition (the latter for the Music degree, with 46 places). In the National Competition, UMinho expanded its places, now admitting 25 more students than the previous year (from 2,942 in 2022/23 to 2,967 in 2023/24). The results also show that 3,954 young people applied to UMinho as their first choice.