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Catholic University of Portugal

801–1000th
World University Rankings 2025
201–300th
Impact Rankings 2024
101-125th
European Teaching Rankings 2019
Palma de Cima, Lisbon, Lisbon District, 164 9023, Portugal

About Catholic University of Portugal

The Catholic University of Portugal, also known as UCP or "Católica", was the first modern university in the country not to have been founded by the state. It was originally opened as a philosophy faculty in Braga in 1967. Three years later, the university both expanded to the capital Lisbon, where it is now headquartered, and received official status as part of an agreement between the Catholic Church and the Portuguese government.

Since then UCP has grown to include two further bases in Porto and Viseu, and the institution’s 15 faculties are spread out across the four locations. UCP’s autonomy has become less unusual in recent decades as private universities began to be launched in Portugal, but it remains relatively unique as a public, non-state, not-for-profit institution.

In total, around 11,000 students are enrolled at UCP, with over 1,000 teaching staff. The faculties include economics; education sciences; arts and humanities; as well as biosciences and bioengineering. It currently offers 13 undergraduate courses, 18 masters degrees and four PhDs. Universidade Nova de Lisboa and UCP have worked together to create full-time and part-time MBA programmes, which include a month at MIT’s Sloan School of Management in Boston.

The university is part of the Erasmus+ programme and 900 students took part in the programme during the 2016/17 academic year, including those sent to foreign universities and those received at UCP. Indeed, half of the student body at UCP is international and 40 per cent of the faculty comes from outside Portugal. The university offers five scholarships to students of Portuguese American descent.

Explore rankings data for Catholic University of Portugal

All ranked institutions have an overall score and 4 pillar scores. However for each pillar, only institutions ranked in the top 500 overall or the top 500 in this pillar have a publicly visible score

Compare universities on their key stats

Key statistics

  • 34%
    Proportion of ISR Publications
    (1)
  • 64 : 36
    Student Ratio of Females to Males
    (1)
  • 21%
    Percentage of International Students
    (1)
  • 11,787
    Number of FTE Students
    (1)
  • 21.7
    No. of students per staff
    (1)
Based on data collected for the (1) 2025 World University Rankings

Subjects taught at Catholic University of Portugal

  • Clinical, pre-clinical & health

    • Medicine & Dentistry
    • Other Health
  • Business & economics

    • Economics & Econometrics
    • Accounting & Finance
    • Business & Management
  • Social sciences

    • Communication & Media Studies
    • Politics & International Studies (incl Development Studies)
  • Law

    • Law
  • Arts & humanities

    • History, Philosophy & Theology
    • Art, Performing Arts & Design
    • Languages, Literature & Linguistics
  • Psychology

    • Psychology
  • Computer science

    • Computer Science
  • Engineering & technology

    • Chemical Engineering
    • General Engineering
  • Education

    • Education
  • Life sciences

    • Biological Sciences