Meritocracy in Higher Education in Portugal

Abstract

This study aims to analyze secondary and higher education students' understanding of meritocratic strategies, specifically merit scholarships awarded in Portuguese higher education. The aim is to understand their perception and how a more effective system can be achieved, by identifying possible improvements. The methodology adopted is based on surveys, which obtained 266 valid responses, and four interviews with scholarship holders from different Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The nature of the study is exploratory and descriptive. The collection and processing of qualitative data allowed us to: understand the respondents' knowledge of the concept of merit scholarships; gather opinions on the relationship between the attribution of merit scholarships and the motivation to obtain better results; identify advantages and disadvantages. A quantitative analysis of the answers was also carried out, by using three Chi-square statistical tests and a Fisher test. The results demonstrate the relevance of meritocracy in higher education and financial support. The main benefits of the scholarship were identified as prestige and enrichment of the curriculum. The awareness of scholarships from the HEI itself and from the Directorate-General for Higher Education (DGES) is low, which may reveal deficiencies in publicizing this type of support and/or a lack of interest. Scholarship students gave greater importance to the existence of the scholarship when they applied for higher education. For future studies, we recommend analyzing larger samples and cross-referencing the results with socio-economic data.