Conceição Freitas shares, in a recent interview with Expresso, some of the main challenges of the term she began in January as head of the Faculty Management of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (Ciências ULisboa). Without failing to describe the reality of the campus, the Dean of Ciências ULisboa reveals, in the interview published last week, some of the expectations and concerns that are also common to all leaders of Higher Education institutions in the country.
Conceição Freitas in an interview with Expresso: from the number of students to the renovation of laboratories, from accommodation to AI in teaching, not forgetting AI2.
Hugo Séneca
Higher Education•28 April, 2026
“There are foreign researchers who would like to stay in Lisbon, but it is difficult to find accommodation compatible with the salaries we have,” says Conceição Freitas, referring to the cost of accommodation in the capital.
Determined to take the Ciências ULisboa brand beyond national borders, the director of Ciências ULisboa describes “the issue of re-equipping the laboratories” as “fundamental” and points the finger at “bureaucratic burden” and “underfunding and underinvestment” as some of the obstacles faced by Higher Education institutions today.
“We are used to an assessment system very much centred on exams and assignments which, now, with the use of AI, students are able to complete very quickly and often without much individual effort. Therefore, we have to find other forms of assessment,”
Regarding the decrease in the number of applications in the current academic year, the explanation points to the fact that there are “fewer students in secondary education”, but also alludes to the change in the rules concerning entrance exams. “I hope that, in the next academic year, we return to what were the usual standards,” says Conceição Freitas.
Finally, the Dean of Ciências ULisboa also expresses a “very cautious position” regarding the extinction of the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and the creation of the Agency for Research and Innovation (AI2), and also admits that education will have to adapt in the face of the expansion of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
“It is impossible to ignore AI,” she warns. “We are used to an assessment system very much centred on exams and assignments which, now, with the use of AI, students are able to complete very quickly and often without much individual effort. Therefore, we have to find other forms of assessment,” emphasised the Dean of Ciências ULisboa.