English-Taught Degrees in Portugal for International Students

It is mid-morning on the Carcavelos coast west of Lisbon, and a Bachelor in Economics seminar is taking apart a case study in English. The professor is Portuguese, trained abroad; the room answers in accents from Brazil, India, Germany and Italy. None of these students will write a single exam in Portuguese over the next three years, and none of them needs to. Forty minutes east, in central Lisbon, an ISCTE master’s cohort closes a data-science class — also in English — and across the river in Católica’s law and business faculty a management bachelor’s runs the same way. Then take a train an hour north to Coimbra, where students still wear black academic capes in a university teaching since 1290, and the language of almost every undergraduate lecture switches back to Portuguese. That contrast is the whole story of studying in Portugal in English: the door is wide open in a few places and firmly shut in most.

Here is the bottom line. You can study in Portugal entirely in English — but the offer is concentrated, not universal, and it is far deeper at master’s level than at bachelor’s. Full English-taught bachelor’s degrees cluster almost entirely in business and economics, anchored by Nova SBE — the economics faculty of the public NOVA University Lisbon — and the private Católica Lisbon, both of which run their Economics and Management bachelor’s fully in English and both holding the Triple Crown of AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA accreditation. English-taught master’s are a different and much wider market, spread across Lisboa, Porto, Minho, Aveiro, ISCTE and NOVA in business, engineering and data science. The price is the headline: at a public university the language does not change the fee, so an EU student pays the legal tuition cap of €697 a year for an English bachelor’s at Nova SBE, the same as any Portuguese-taught degree; a non-EU student pays the differentiated international fee of €3,000–7,000. The English bar is TOEFL iBT 80–94 or IELTS 6.0–6.5; Nova SBE’s bachelor’s sits at the standard B2 floor of TOEFL 80 / IELTS 6.0, and its selectivity is academic — strong grades, not a higher English score. Of every country we advise on, Portugal is the one families cross off fastest on a false assumption — “Portugal means Portuguese” — and in doing so they walk past a Triple-Crown English business degree priced like nothing else in Europe.

This is the focused companion to our complete guide to studying in Portugal. It answers one question precisely: where, and how, do you study in Portugal in English? We map the universities with real English catalogues, separate the narrow bachelor’s offer from the wide master’s one, name the fields where English works, lay out the test requirements and the €697 economics of it, and say plainly where Portugal loses to the Netherlands on breadth and to Italy on English-taught medicine.

English-Taught Degrees in Portugal, Key Numbers

Source: DGES and university fee pages; Nova SBE and Católica admissions; College Council Atlas, 2025/26. The English catalogue shifts each cycle — confirm the exact offer and language of instruction on the relevant programme page.

Where the English actually is — three pools, not one market

English-taught study in Portugal is not one market but three, and they look nothing alike on breadth, price or admissions. Get them confused — as most search results do — and you will either miss the genuine bargains or chase degrees that do not exist in English.

The English business bachelor’s — narrow, elite, and the reason most internationals come. Two schools carry almost the entire fully English-taught undergraduate offer in Portugal, and both are business and economics specialists. Nova SBE — the Nova School of Business and Economics, the economics faculty of NOVA University Lisbon — runs its Bachelor in Economics and Bachelor in Management entirely in English from a campus on the sand at Carcavelos, with classes drawn from more than sixty countries. Católica Lisbon, the business and economics flagship of the private Universidade Católica Portuguesa, mirrors it. Both hold the Triple Crown of AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA accreditation — a combination fewer than 1% of business schools worldwide hold — and the Financial Times ranks Nova’s master’s in management among Europe’s strongest. This is the deep end of English-taught Portugal, and it is a top-tier European business education in its own right.

The English-at-master’s pool — wide, and the real volume. This is where Portugal’s English offer opens up. The leading public universities run substantial and growing menus of English-taught master’s to attract international and Erasmus students, even where their bachelor’s are taught in Portuguese. ISCTE, a public university in central Lisbon with the feel of a private one, is a popular choice for English master’s in business, IT and the social sciences. The University of Minho in Braga and Guimarães and the University of Aveiro between Porto and Coimbra run research-active English master’s in engineering, the sciences and data. The University of Lisbon — including its engineering school Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal’s closest thing to a national MIT — and the University of Porto both teach broad English master’s catalogues in engineering, data and business. If you are coming for a one- or two-year master’s, the English menu is several times larger than it is for undergraduates.

Everything else is Portuguese. The third pool — by far the largest — is the bulk of public undergraduate teaching: medicine, law, the humanities, teaching, most of the sciences. These run in Portuguese, require a CAPLE certificate at roughly B1–B2, and no amount of searching turns them into English degrees. The University of Coimbra, the oldest and most tradition-bound, is the clearest example: a magnificent place to study law, medicine or the humanities, but overwhelmingly in Portuguese. If your field sits in this pool and you need English, Portugal is not your country.

The universities to shortlist for an English-taught degree

These are the institutions where an English-taught degree is a real, established product rather than a token course. The table maps what each is known for in English — and at what level the English actually runs — because when language of instruction is your filter, that matters far more than an overall ranking. Every name links to its full profile in our Atlas.

For the overall ranking picture across Portuguese higher education — where the QS World University Rankings 2026 put the University of Lisbon (#230) and the University of Porto (#237) as the only two inside the world top 250, ahead of NOVA, Coimbra, Aveiro and Minho — see our complete guide to studying in Portugal. This page filters that set by one criterion only: whether you can actually study there in English, and at what level.

💬 “The mistake I see every year is a strong international student crossing Portugal off the list because ‘Portugal means Portuguese.’ For business and economics that’s flatly wrong — you can do a Triple-Crown English bachelor’s at Nova SBE for €697 a year on an EU passport, which is the best value in elite European business education, full stop. The honest caveats are two. First, the English bachelor’s offer outside business is thin, so it’s really a master’s country for everything else. And second, if you’re non-EU the headline isn’t €697 — it’s the differentiated fee of a few thousand euros plus a visa. Get those two things straight and Portugal becomes one of the smartest English-taught plays in Europe.” — Jakub Andre, Founder, College Council · Indiana University, Kelley School of Business ‘20

Which fields work in English — and which do not

English-taught supply in Portugal is uneven by discipline and by level, and the single most common way international students waste a search is by pairing the right field with the wrong level — looking for an English bachelor’s in engineering, say, when the English engineering only starts at master’s.

Wide open in English. Business, management and economics are the spine of the entire English offer — Nova SBE and Católica run them fully in English at both bachelor’s and master’s level, and they are the strongest reason to study in Portugal in English at all. At master’s level, engineering, computer science, data science and the applied sciences open up substantially: IST, Minho, Aveiro, Porto and ISCTE all run English master’s in these fields, and the offer is growing every cycle.

Bachelor’s, business only. The hard constraint at undergraduate level is that full English bachelor’s degrees essentially exist only in business and economics. Outside Nova SBE and Católica — with a thin scatter of English or bilingual tracks at ISCTE and IST — there is very little fully English-taught undergraduate study in Portugal. If you want an English bachelor’s in engineering, the sciences, social sciences or the humanities, the honest answer is usually to come for a Portuguese-taught degree (and learn the language) or to come later for an English master’s.

Mostly closed in English. Medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and nursing are taught in Portuguese, and Portugal has no equivalent of Italy’s English-taught medical route — if an English MD is your goal, Portugal is a weak market. Law (in the Portuguese jurisdiction), teaching, public administration and most humanities run in Portuguese and require a CAPLE certificate at B1–B2.

Source: official programme catalogues, 2025/26. Availability is field- and level-specific and changes each cycle; always verify on the programme page.

What it costs — the language is free, the institution is not

The counter-intuitive fact that reshapes most Portugal budgets is this: at a public university, choosing English does not change the tuition. By national law the annual fee (propina) for an EU student is capped at €697 for 2025/26 (ULisboa), and that cap applies whether the programme is taught in Portuguese or English — including Nova SBE’s English-taught Bachelor in Economics, because Nova sits inside a public university (Nova SBE fees). A non-EU student pays the differentiated international fee of roughly €3,000–7,000 a year at the same public university, again regardless of language, set field by field and rising for specialist programmes. So the language is, quite literally, free.

The price jump comes entirely from choosing a private university, not from choosing English. Católica Lisbon charges market tuition outside the cap — about €8,900 a year for EU students and over €10,000 for non-EU (Católica fees) — for an English-taught degree that competes directly with Nova’s public-funded one. You are paying for the institution and its network, not for the English. Even so, both options sit below most of Western Europe.

Source: ULisboa, Nova SBE and Católica fee pages, 2025/26. EU and non-EU tuition differ sharply, and master’s fees are set per programme; confirm the exact figure on the relevant page.

For the full cost-of-living picture — Lisbon at roughly €800–1,200 a month, Porto 20–25% cheaper at €600–900, Coimbra cheaper still at €450–700 — see the costs section of our main Portugal guide. The living budget is identical whether you study in English or Portuguese, and it is well below Amsterdam, Milan or anywhere in the UK.

English certification — what the test bar really is

Almost every English-taught programme in Portugal asks for proof of English, and the bar sits a notch above the English most secondary schools actually deliver. The standard accepted tests are TOEFL iBT, IELTS Academic, Cambridge C1 Advanced and, increasingly, the Duolingo English Test. Typical thresholds:

• Most English-taught programmes (public master’s, ISCTE, the broad field): TOEFL iBT 80–94 or IELTS 6.0–6.5.
• Nova SBE’s English-taught bachelor’s sets the standard B2 bar: TOEFL iBT 80 or IELTS 6.0. Some master’s and specialist tracks ask for the upper end of the band — confirm the number on the specific programme page.

A point most applicants miss: if you are a native English speaker or completed secondary school in English, you are usually exempt, so check each programme’s exemption rule before you pay for a test you may not need. And the part I warn families about most: comfortable school English and a verified TOEFL in the 90s are two different things. In our advising work most students need 8–14 weeks of structured practice to close the gap, and it is almost always a thin speaking or writing sub-score — not reading or listening — that drops an otherwise strong candidate below the line. Our TOEFL app runs full TOEFL iBT practice tests with AI-graded speaking and writing feedback, which is exactly where those marginal points are won or lost. If you are still choosing between exams, see our TOEFL versus IELTS guide.

A note on the SAT: it is not the centre of Portuguese admissions the way it is in the US. A handful of programmes — Nova SBE and Católica among them — value a strong SAT (around 1250+) as a supporting signal for international applicants, and it travels well if you are building a Portugal-plus-US application list. If that is your situation, our SAT app runs the full digital SAT with adaptive practice. For most English-taught applicants, though, the English certificate is the gate that matters, not the SAT.

How English-taught Portugal compares — be honest about the trade-off

Portugal does one thing better than almost anyone and several things worse than its neighbours, so the right way to read it is by what you actually want to study, not by a single verdict.

Where Portugal wins is the combination of elite English-taught business and economics at unbeatable price: Nova SBE and Católica form a Triple-Crown pair, and Nova’s English bachelor’s costs an EU student €697 a year because it sits inside a public university — a price no private business school in Spain, Italy or the Netherlands can come close to. Add lifestyle and living costs well below northern Europe, the right to work from day one for EU students, and full EU degree mobility, and English-taught business in Portugal is genuinely hard to beat.

Where Portugal loses is breadth and a few specific products. For the widest English-taught public bachelor’s menu across nearly every field, the Netherlands still leads Europe decisively. For English-taught medicine, Italy wins outright via the IMAT exam — Portugal has essentially no English MD route. And Spain offers a larger and more varied English catalogue overall, including more English-taught engineering and international-relations bachelor’s, though at the public level it cannot match Portugal’s €697 cap.

Source: cross-country comparison of English-taught catalogues, 2025/26, based on official programme data and College Council Atlas.

Admissions — two front doors, the same English bar

There is no single way into an English-taught degree in Portugal — there are two, and they run on different calendars. The route you take depends on where you apply: the private and Nova SBE schools run their own admissions, while the public master’s sit inside the national system. Pick the wrong calendar and you can miss a deadline by months without realising it.

Nova SBE’s English bachelor’s and the private schools run their own admissions, earlier and separately from the public system. Nova SBE applies online across two main rounds — broadly an early round in winter and a regular round in spring — assessing your converted academic results (it looks for strong grades, around 14/20 and up on the converted Portuguese scale), a motivation letter, an English certificate at the B2 bar (TOEFL iBT 80 / IELTS 6.0) and, for some, the SAT, with offers returned within weeks. Católica Lisbon follows a similar shape with its own essay and interview elements. Decide your target early, because these rounds close months before the public competition.

Public English-taught master’s sit inside Portugal’s public admissions framework. International applicants apply directly to each institution — most with a foreign diploma route through the Concurso Especial para Estudantes Internacionais — submitting their bachelor’s transcript (translated, often apostilled), which the university converts to the Portuguese 0–20 scale, plus the English certificate. The main public-sector windows open in spring and summer for an autumn start. There is no single UCAS-style portal; you apply programme by programme.

Either way, the English requirement is constant, so book and sit your TOEFL or IELTS early — a missing or low English score is the single most common reason an English-taught application stalls. And once you hold a place, non-EU students need a national student visa from a Portuguese consulate, which adds four to eight weeks (sometimes more) to the back end of the timeline; EU citizens need only a NIF and, after 90 days, a CRUE residence certificate. The full visa and formalities picture is in our main Portugal guide.

Source: Nova SBE and Católica admissions pages; DGES competition calendar, 2026 cycle. Dates shift each cycle and by university; confirm on the institution’s site.

How College Council helps

We built College Council to take the two things that most often derail an English-taught application in Portugal off your plate: a borderline English score and a search that confuses “Portugal” with “Portuguese.”

Start with the data. Our Atlas holds every Portuguese university — public and private — with tuition, programme lists and admission requirements cross-checked against official sources, so you can filter for the institutions that actually teach in English and line up a public English-taught master’s, the Nova SBE bachelor’s and a private Católica programme side by side on real numbers, not marketing. When you create a free account, you get the real admission requirements and a clear read on how to get in, then run your profile through our chances tool to see where you stand before you spend a euro on applications.

For the test that gates almost every English-taught programme, our TOEFL app runs full TOEFL iBT practice with AI-graded speaking and writing — most students need 8–14 weeks of structured work to clear the 80–94 band English-taught programmes expect. And if you are targeting Nova SBE, Católica or a parallel US application where the SAT carries weight, our SAT app runs the full digital SAT with adaptive practice, so you prepare once and apply broadly.

Frequently Asked Questions

Summary — is an English-taught degree in Portugal right for you?

Portugal is the English-taught destination you choose when your field is business or economics, or when you are coming for a master’s, and value matters to you as much as breadth. For English-taught business and economics it is one of the best plays in Europe: a Triple-Crown bachelor’s at Nova SBE for €697 a year on an EU passport, living costs well below northern Europe, the right to work from day one, and a degree that carries full EU mobility. At master’s level the English menu widens across Lisboa, Porto, Minho, Aveiro and ISCTE, and the same €697 public economics holds. The English bar is a verified TOEFL iBT 80–94 or IELTS 6.0–6.5 — Nova’s bachelor’s sits at the B2 floor of TOEFL 80 / IELTS 6.0 — and clearing it early is the difference between a smooth application and a stalled one.

It works less well if your field is medicine (no English route), law in the Portuguese jurisdiction, teaching or the public sector — those stay Portuguese — or if you want an English bachelor’s outside business, where the Netherlands leads on breadth and Italy on medicine. And it always rewards students who learn some Portuguese anyway, because the classroom may run in English but the country, and a uniquely employable second language, do not.

If the names on this page — Nova SBE, Católica, ISCTE, Minho, Aveiro — fit your field and your level, Portugal offers some of the best-value English-language education in the EU, and the search starts the day you decide what you want to study.

Next Steps

1. Filter by field and level, not just country — confirm your subject is taught in English and at your level (bachelor’s = business only; master’s = broad) before you fall for a campus. Compare real English programmes in our Atlas.
2. Pick your front door — Nova SBE / private (own rounds, autumn–spring) or public English master’s (Concurso Especial, spring/summer). Apply to the private rounds early.
3. Book your English test — most English-taught programmes want TOEFL iBT 80–94 or IELTS 6.0–6.5 (Nova SBE’s bachelor’s: TOEFL 80 / IELTS 6.0); prepare in our TOEFL app.
4. If you are targeting Nova SBE, Católica or a parallel US application, prepare the SAT once in our SAT app.
5. Create a free account at College Council, then run your profile through our chances tool.

Read Also

• Study in Portugal: complete guide for international students — the full system: tuition, the DGES route, NIF/CRUE and the student visa
• English-taught degrees in Spain — the larger, more varied English catalogue next door
• English-taught degrees in the Netherlands — the deepest English-taught public bachelor’s offer in Europe
• English-taught degrees in Italy — including English-taught medicine via the IMAT exam
• Motivation letter for European universities — for Nova SBE, Católica and the public master’s applications
• TOEFL versus IELTS for European universities — which English test to take

Sources and Methodology

University programme and language-of-instruction data are drawn from official university admissions pages and cross-checked against College Council’s Atlas dataset of Portuguese higher-education institutions. The picture is qualitative on volume by design: Portugal does not publish a single official count of English-taught programmes, and the catalogue shifts each cycle, so this guide maps where and at what level English-taught study is real rather than claiming a precise programme total. High-stakes current-cycle figures (tuition, the €697 EU cap, the non-EU differentiated fee, English-test thresholds) were verified against official Portuguese government, DGES and university sources in June 2026. EU and non-EU tuition differ sharply and the differentiated international fee is set per institution and field, so always confirm the exact figure and the language of instruction on the relevant programme page for your intake year.

1. DGES / University of Lisbon — Tuition fees (EU bachelor’s propina capped at €697 for 2025/26; non-EU differentiated international fee; language of instruction does not change the public fee)
2. Nova SBE — Bachelor in Economics fees and funding (English-taught bachelor’s at €697/year for EU students; higher international rate; Triple Crown accreditation). The bachelor’s English requirement is the B2 bar — TOEFL iBT 80 / IELTS 6.0 — per Nova SBE’s bachelor’s admissions and incoming-student fact sheets, 2025/26.
3. Católica Lisbon (UCP) — Fees (private market tuition; ≈ €8,900/year EU, higher for non-EU; English-taught business and economics)
4. DGES — Direção-Geral do Ensino Superior, admissions competitions and international-student rules (Concurso Especial para Estudantes Internacionais; grade conversion to the 0–20 scale)
5. QS / TopUniversities — QS World University Rankings 2026 (Lisboa #230, Porto #237; overall Portuguese university positions)
6. College Council — Atlas higher-education dataset (Portuguese HEI identity, programme, language-of-instruction and fee data) and internal advising experience with international applicant families