“We have around 900 displaced students. At the moment, our accommodation offer is just under 400 places. We’re going to add 270 places. Naturally, this doesn’t meet all the needs, but we have created alternatives for the students who are left out,” said the rector of the University of the Azores, Susana Mira Leal, in a statement to journalists.

She was speaking on the sidelines of the foundation stone laying for the Angra do Heroísmo residence on Terceira island.

Located on the Angra do Heroísmo campus of the University of the Azores, the residence will have a capacity for 100 students. It will have 48 double rooms and four single rooms for people with reduced mobility.

On Tuesday, the foundation stone will also be laid for the university residence in Horta, on the island of Faial, and the one in Ponta Delgada, on the island of São Miguel, should be laid by the end of the month.

In total, 270 beds (50 in Horta, 100 in Angra do Heroísmo, and 120 in Ponta Delgada) will be added to the three residences. These must be completed by March 2026 so that the academy can access funds from the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR).

Susana Mira Leal believes that improving the conditions in which displaced young people are housed will increase the number of students entering the University of the Azores.

“Our aim with these university residences, but not only that, is to create conditions to strengthen our ability to attract students, also here at the Angra campus,” she said.

In addition to the vacancies in university residences, the rector recalled that there are “protocols with private entities to host scholarship students” that have not yet reached their full capacity.

On the Angra do Heroísmo campus, the academy intends to open new degree courses and technical-vocational training courses.

It also wants to offer the veterinary medicine course “autonomously and in its entirety” from the next academic year or the year after. Currently, the first two years are taught in Angra do Heroísmo, with the following years taught at the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro.

“For this to happen, we need to create a veterinary hospital here in Angra. We’re already working on that project,” she said.

Susana Mira Leal dismissed this scenario for the time being when asked about the possibility of reopening the management degree, which was in high demand in Angra do Heroísmo.

“Our School of Technology and Administration has created a two-year professional technical degree course to run in Angra, in the area of management and consultancy, which we think corresponds to the desires and needs that we can meet at the moment in this hub,” she said.

The University of the Azores applied to the national student accommodation program in 2022 to build three university residences on the islands where it has a campus. Still, the funding for the first phase ran out, and the Azorean academy was not covered.

With the reconfiguration of the PRR, the University of the Azores was included in this program, however, the funding provided was not “minimally adequate or sufficient for the cost of construction in the region”.

“The funding was around 38,000 to 40,000 euros per bed. In the region we had estimated that it would never be less than 65,000 euros and would reach 90,000 in Horta,” explained Susana Mira Leal.

The Ministry of Science, Technology, and Higher Education increased the funding for the Azores and Madeira by 20%. Still, even so, support was needed from the municipalities where the three residences will be located to ensure the viability of the works.

The residence in Angra do Heroísmo will cost 5.2 million euros (plus VAT), the one in Ponta Delgada 6.3 million (plus VAT), and the one in Horta 4 million (plus VAT).

The Angra do Heroísmo municipality will support the University of the Azores with 900,000 euros, Ponta Delgada with 1 million euros, and Horta with 600,000 euros.

Part of the work in Ponta Delgada and Horta will have to be covered by the Azorean academy’s own funds.

In Açoriano Oriental, Paula Gouveia-director

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department (MCLL) as part of Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance) at California State University, Fresno, PBBI thanks Luso Financial for sponsoring NOVIDADES.