The Project
Education is an essential right for the exercise of civil and political rights, as well as economic, social and cultural rights, having a transformative effect on improving the living conditions of citizens. Nevertheless, UNESCO underlines that the realization of this right is still a great challenge in the African continent.
Aware of this challenge, we designed the project “Cooperation for Development and Education Law in Higher Education Systems within PALOP countries: the Cases of Angola, Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe” – financed by Instituto Camões, by the coordinating entity – NOVA School of Law – and by the partner entities, namely: Jurisnova, the Center for Studies in Legal and Economic Sciences of the University Agostinho Neto (Angola), the Superior Institute of Legal and Social Sciences of Cape Verde (Cape Verde) and the Justice and Governance Research Center (JusGov) of the Law School of the University of Minho (Portugal).
After realizing that the existing research projects and outputs in the realms of Law, Education and Cooperation focused greatly on the study of Basic and Secondary Education, this project proposes, instead, to reflect on Higher Education in Portuguese-speaking African Countries. Focusing on the normative framework that regulates this level of education, on national public policies related to Education, on the International Agendas for Development and on the role of Cooperation for Development in the implementation of these same policies, this project aims to contribute to the scientific development of Education Law in Higher Education and to its implementation in terms of public policies and cooperation priorities.
It should also be noted that this project seeks to respond to the Sustainable Development Goals 4 (‘Quality Education’) and 5 (‘Gender Equality’) of the UN Agenda 2030 (“Transforming our world”), as well as to the aspirations of Agenda 2063 of the African Union (“The Africa We Want”), which highlights the fundamental role of Higher Education in development processes, and encourage States to invest in this level of education as a tool for Sustainable Development.
