The Student Ombudsman of the University of Minho, Rosa M. Vasconcelos, was re-elected as president of the Portuguese Network of Higher Education Student Ombudsmen (RPE). This network brings together representatives from 60 national universities and polytechnic institutes, both public and private. The inauguration took place last Friday, at the end of the 13th National Meeting of Student Ombudsmen, held at the University of Minho.

Rosa M. Vasconcelos is thus moving on to a second term at the head of this network after taking over as President in 2022 under the motto ‘Continuing the Path: + Network + Sharing + Effectiveness’. The UMinho professor, who also sits on the board of the Ibero-American Network of Student Ombudsmen, has already identified some of the goals for this term, for which she highlights three fundamental vectors, namely the promotion of greater integration and collaboration between Student Ombudsmen, with the aim of strengthening the Network and enhancing the offer of high-quality services to students; the establishment of strategic partnerships with educational institutions, companies and other relevant entities to strengthen the Network’s position in the education market for students; Defending the interests and needs of Student Providers with government authorities and other relevant bodies, seeking better conditions for the exercise of the activity and contributing to the promotion of public and education-related policies in higher education, with a view to strengthening the sector and increasing access to and the quality of education for students.

This re-election took place at the RPE General Assembly, which was held at UMinho and closed the National Meeting of Student Ombudsmen, which served to discuss and analyse the network’s work in recent years. The Assembly also adopted the RPE’s new motto: ‘Alone we get there faster, but together we get further’.

The RPE was born in 2020 and aims to be a permanent forum for transferring knowledge and experiences in the field, while also sharing the principles of the Universal Charter of Human Rights and the rule of law. The figure of the Student Ombudsman emerged in the country with the Legal Framework for Higher Education Institutions in 2007. At international level, there is, for example, the European Network of Higher Education Ombudsmen (ENOHE) and the Ibero-American Network of University Ombudsmen (RIdDU).