Today, the director of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto (FMUP) regretted that state funding has fallen by “almost two million euros” in the last decade and announced the desire of creating a Clinical Academic Center.
The enormous increase of FMUP’s scientific and academic production was not accompanied by an increase in its budgets, namely the State subsidy. In fact, if there was a slight increase between 1996 and 2008, between 2008 and 2018 the funds from the State Budget decreased by almost two million euros”, said Altamiro da Costa Pereira during the session of FMUP Day, which commemorates 194 years of medical education in Porto.
FMUP’s director explained that the institution subsists because the income from tuition fees has increased “about 70 times” in the last 20 years.
He added that he intends to resort to fundraising for maintenance work and announced his ambition to “reorganise” the faculty’s articulation with Hospital São João, “possibly creating a Clinical Academic Center, in the North of Portugal”.
“How does FMUP survive? Because its own revenues, which in 1996 were only 8%, are now 46% of its budget,” the director noted.
Altamiro da Costa Pereira clarified that “the equipment cost”, which was 5 per cent of the investment in 1996, went to “1.1 per cent in 2018”.
“Here in the faculty the ‘troika’ times never left,” he lamented.
The director highlighted that, despite the “enormous effort” that FMUP has made in several areas, “it has much less money than it should” have.
“Although the faculty is not being treated well by the state, it is still thriving,” he assured.
Regarding “academic production”, the director pointed out the present 60 post-graduate courses, an increase of “more than six times its formative offer” in relation to 1996.
“In 1996, FMUP graduated 101 students. In 2018 the number has almost tripled to 287,” he said.
As for “scientific production”, it went from 62 publications in 1996 to 833 in 2018.