The recognition in Portugal of higher education degrees and diplomas awarded by foreign higher education institutions is regulated, since January 1st 2019, by
Decree-Law no. 66/2018. This Decree-Law repeals the previous two regarding these issues, Decree-Law no. 283/83 and Decree-Law no. 341/2007.
The new Decree-Law standardizes the procedures for the recognition of foreign qualifications, making them more transparent, equitable and simple, introducing changes to the previous legal regimes by clarifying concepts, and widening the recognition to short cycle higher-education diplomas that have identical level, objectives and nature to Portuguese professional higher education technical courses. Simplified procedures are introduced, namely by establishing a system of precedence for the Level Recognition process, which guarantees a more automatic process for the decision, avoiding repetition, reducing costs and response times for recognition decisions.