Recent changes in the area of third level education

Abstract

In Portugal the demand for third level education began to rapidly intensify from the decade of the 60's, increasing at such a rate in the following years that it ended up provoking, in 1976, the imposition of mechanisms to control access, among which was included the numerus clausus. Faced with the implacable verdict of the numerus clausus and the prospects of exclusion associated with it, each social stratum then began to produce new types of school practices as a response to the increased competition surrounding school qualifications. The purpose of this article is precisely that of attempting to capture and interpret these socially distinct practices that have been developed in recent decades.