Education plays an important part in Portuguese history. The University of Coimbra, founded in 1290, was one of Europe’s first universities. Following this, education in Portugal was reserved for only the most privileged Portuguese for a long period. Due to this elitist system, Portugal has long had a struggling education system, and previously had among the lowest rates of education in Europe. However, since the 1960’s, this trend has changed and a much larger percentage of the Portuguese population are earning not just secondary school diplomas, but also higher education degrees.
