105 Portuguese degree courses have graduate unemployment above national average

More than 100 higher education courses in Portugal have graduate unemployment rates above the national average, while 85 recorded no unemployed graduates at all, according to updated government data released ahead of this year’s university admissions.

The figures, published on the Infocursos portal by Portugal’s Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation, show that 105 of the country’s 1,120 degree programmes have graduate unemployment rates higher than the national average ( 6.4%, based on 2024 employment data).

The unemployment indicator measures the proportion of recent graduates registered as unemployed with Portugal’s employment agency, IEFP.

According to Público, the number of courses where unemployment exceeded the national average increased in the 2024/25 academic year.

The degree with the highest graduate unemployment rate was Artistic Animation and Production at the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, where 17.1% of recent graduates later registered as unemployed.

The same institution also featured twice more among the 10 worst-performing courses, with Social Education and Marketing both recording unemployment rates of 10.3%.

Other courses with relatively high unemployment included Digital Arts and Multimedia, Architecture, Interior Design, Fashion Design and Marketing, and Documentation and Information Science.

At the other end of the scale, 85 courses recorded no unemployed graduates.

These included degrees in Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nursing, Physiotherapy, Osteopathy, Maritime Electrical Engineering and Primary Education, all showing graduate unemployment rates of 0%.

The Infocursos portal publishes the data annually to help prospective students compare higher education programmes before applying to university.

Applications for the first round of Portugal’s national higher education admissions open on July 20 and close on August 6.

Despite the increase in the number of courses with above-average unemployment, the overall employment outlook for graduates has improved.

The proportion of recent graduates registered with the IEFP has fallen steadily from 7.2% in 2017 to 2.6% in 2026, reflecting a broader improvement in graduate employment across both public and private higher education institutions.

The updated Infocursos data also highlights the growing internationalisation of Portuguese universities.

Over the past decade, the proportion of international students enrolled in integrated master’s programmes has more than tripled, rising from 5.5% in 2017 to 18.4% this year. International enrolment in bachelor’s degrees also increased, from 8.8% to 13.5% over the same period.

Source: Executive Digest

Natasha Donn

Journalist for the Portugal Resident.