An economist in Education. Fernando Alexandre leads “super ministry” | Education

He knows the ins and outs of higher education well, where he has been a professor for two decades, but it is likely that his biggest headaches come from non-higher education. With no known previous connection to the world of schools, Fernando Alexandre is a surprising choice for a new “super ministry” which will bring together Education, including Higher Education, Science and Innovation.

The AD committed to the phased recovery (20% per year, until the end of the legislature) of the six years, six months and 23 days of frozen service time for teachers — reason for one of the biggest waves of protest suffered by the outgoing Government . Luís Montenegro handed this negotiation over to an economist.

Training in Economics also influences his thinking when it comes to the Education sector. “TWe need to improve the education system and the functioning of the labor market so that we can derive more benefits from this investment for families, regions and the country”he defended in June, in an article in Observador, where he writes regularly, and is also a regular presence on RTP, among other media outlets.

A staunch defender of school rankings, he sees them as “indicators of the evolution of teaching quality” and a tool that guarantees information to families, especially “lower-income families, which are those whose effort is greater for their children to complete a higher education course”, he wrote on another occasion.

In 2021, he coordinated a study, “Do made in to the created in: a new paradigm for the Portuguese economy”, published by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation, which argued that, in education, digital and programming skills should be introduced from the 1st cycle. And it suggested a review of higher education financing criteria.

At the time, during the Renaissance, Fernando Alexandre then defended the focus on areas that could bring “a Nobel for Portugal”. In this area, the academic authors of the study they also considered it essential to create scholarship systems for international students, “in order to reinforce the attraction and retention of talent”. And also establish program contracts between the authority and universities “so that, by 2030, Portugal will have at least one university among the 100 best in the world and five scientific areas among the 75 best in the world in the Shanghai ranking”.

Fernando Alexandre, aged 52, has experience in university management: he was pro-rector and also president of the School of Economics at the University of Minho. At that institution, he has been an associate professor since 2009.

With a degree and master’s degree in Economics from the University of Coimbra in 2003, he received his doctorate from the University of London – Birkbeck Collegewith a dissertation on monetary policy and financial markets, as stated in the biographical note in site of the Economic and Social Council (CES), institution of which He is vice-president, chosen by the socialist Francisco Assis.

Two years in Government

The meeting, in the same ministry, of Education and Higher Education is one of the new features of the AD Government. It had already been like this during the mandate from 2011 to 2015 — at the time, the minister was Nuno Crato, who had two different secretaries of State for higher education during those four years. In the following three legislatures, the PS maintained the two separate portfolios.

The choice for minister of this new “super portfolio” was also made by the Government of Pedro Passos Coelho. Fernando Alexandre was deputy secretary of State to the Minister of Internal Administration, in the second half of that term – he was appointed in April 2013 by the then minister Miguel Macedo. He did not reach the end of his term: he left six months before the elections, in conflict with Anabela Rodrigues, who had meanwhile taken over the portfolio.

Before joining the Government, the economist had been one of the authors of a study that negatively assessed the impacts of the proposal related to the increase in the single social tax, made by Pedro Passos Coelho. More recently, he was also part of the technical committee responsible for evaluating proposals for the location of Lisbon airport.