Nelson Costa Ribeiro - Dean of the Faculty of Human Sciences

Welcome to the Faculty of Human Sciences!

Renowned for cultivating an interdisciplinary research and teaching environment, the Faculty of Human Sciences (Portuguese acronym FCH hereafter) provides a wide reaching range of undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degree programs that are anchored around five core scientific fields – Communication Sciences, Social Sciences, Culture Studies, Philosophy and Psychology – and two institutes: the Institute of Family Sciences and the Institute of Asian Studies.

The quality of our educational services are today recognised as much by the private sector – which reflects well in the employability of our students – as by the positions attained in the prestigious international rankings which rate the various FCH study programs as among the best in the world. Over our 50 year history we have created pioneering programs and changed the teaching landscape in Portugal.

Founded in 1972, currently the faculty runs a total of 6 undergraduate, 10 master’s and 6 doctoral degrees programs in addition to the educational range provided by the School of Post-Graduate and Advanced Programs consisting of over a dozen medium and short term study programs.

The teaching undertaken in the FCH leverages the research carried out by the faculty that hosts a diverse range of study centers and research units that produce knowledge of a standard able to attract international recognition. As a school of the humanities and social sciences, we take due pride in providing training and education that, in addition to endowing students with the competences necessary to joining the labor market, stimulates the development of a critical and reflective spirit, essential to any genuine understanding of the contemporary world. In parallel, we stimulate the creativity and entrepreneurship of our students and may correspondingly indeed duly note how our alumni stand out amongst the founders of diverse different start-ups as well as ranking among the senior management of companies and organizations that act in sectors as distinct as culture, technology and the social economy through to the media and government organizations.

The FCH is today a faculty open to the world: as well as receiving a growing number of international students arriving from each of the five continents, many of our students participate in mobility programs, whether in Europe, the United States and Canada, Asia, Latin America or in Australia. Furthermore, we annually welcome international researchers to share the results of their projects with both students and colleagues in a permanent climate of debate and the exchange of ideas.

We also strive to lead as a faculty whose teaching, research and community service activities are characterized by the humanist values that constitute the foundations for the integral personal development able to prepare persons to respond to the challenges of the contemporary world. Indeed, this does convey the very reason that the education gained at the FCH represents Value for Life.
 

Professor Nelson Costa Ribeiro
Dean of the Faculty of Human Sciences