Introduction. On exceptionalism: The nation, a generation and higher education, Portugal 1974-2009

Abstract

As Europe's higher education policy takes on shape, substance and urgency, the place of the Nation State in ensuring its success - or stagnation - remains central. Against this broad backdrop, the development of higher education in Portugal is set. The unfolding of a highly dynamic system of higher education across the four decades that elapsed since the Revolution of the Carnations in 1974 is traced and linked up with the broader political, cultural, economic and social trends in both Portuguese society and in the European Dimension of higher education policy. Crucial to this account is the long-term, historical perspective. It is developed along five major themes: Change in European Higher Education; the Study of Higher Education: A Brief History; Portugal - Exemplar, Pioneer or Partner? On the Road to Neoliberalism; and finally, a Rapid Flight over a Complex Terrain. The Introduction provides a complementary overview and a rationale that underpins the 15 detailed and disciplinary-based analyses that follow.