Institute
Mission
ISMAT is a higher education establishment whose public interest was recognised by Decree-Law no. 194/2004, of 17 August, and whose founding body is COFAC - Cooperativa de Formação e Animação Cultural, CRL.
In accordance with the Legal Framework for Higher Education Institutions, ISMAT is part of the national non-integrated university education system and has its headquarters at Rua Dr Estêvão de Vasconcelos, 33, in Portimão.
ISMAT's general objectives are:
- To provide higher university education in the different areas of knowledge;
- To carry out research studies and scientific and technological investigation.
ISMAT's specific objectives are:
- University higher education, in all legally admissible degrees;
- Human, cultural, scientific, technical and technological training;
- Carrying out fundamental and applied research;
- Active participation in the national education system;
- The provision of services to the community, with a view to mutual appreciation, rationalisation and maximum use of national resources;
- Continuing education and lifelong learning;
- Contributing, within its scope of activity, to the development of Portugal, international cooperation and rapprochement between peoples, with special emphasis on Portuguese-speaking peoples and the sub-region in which it operates.
ISMAT is bound by the following fundamental principles of action:
- Independence from any political, social, economic or religious force or institution;
- Scientific, pedagogical and cultural autonomy;
- Structure in organic units, based on scientific areas, with the aim of simultaneously realising the fair autonomy and the necessary interdisciplinarity of all sciences;
- Introduction of the ‘credit unit system’, under the terms of the Bologna Declaration and the rules that concretise the principles set out therein;
- Increasing and deepening relations with companies and other organisations in order to make teaching and scientific research more effective;
- Collaboration and exchange with similar institutions at home and abroad, particularly in Portuguese-speaking countries and peoples;
- Participation of the teaching staff and student body in decisions of a scientific or pedagogical nature.