“We are all part of Técnico – a commitment to the future” is the motto proposed by Rogério Colaço’s running for a second term in office. On 22nd November, the current Técnico president and only candidate, spoke to an audience of professors, researchers, students and non-teaching staff in the Abreu Faro Amphitheatre, at Alameda Campus. The hearing brought together about 50 spectators in person and another 150 in the online session via Zoom.

At his hearing, Rogério Colaço presented the motivation, values, vision and strategic lines of his candidacy for the 2024-2027 four-year term. He explained that he wants “to contribute to realising the things that have been planned and that have been carried out, as well as others that are planned for the future”.

“I added the phrase ‘a commitment to the future’ because, naturally, an incumbent candidate has the temptation to look back at what has been done”, he explained. The second half of the motto therefore came about as an “effort not to incur that risk”.

According to Rogério Colaço, the most important thing he has done “is not the classrooms, the Chemistry Tower lift (which sometimes breaks down) or even the construction of Técnico Innovation Center“. Instead, he stresses “the culture and values of the institution are the most important. Those who run our institution have an obligation to pass on to their colleagues”. In his opinion, these values are “ethics, professionalism, civic duty, freedom and plurality”. He also emphasised gender equality, critical thinking, excellence, community well-being and collaboration. With regard to the latter, Rogério Colaço highlighted “as a higher education institution, we must promote collaboration and, more than promote it, we have to create mechanisms that allow it”.

“I absolutely agree with the President of Técnico taking responsibility for implementing the Strategic Plan in force”, he reiterated. In order to fulfill it, along with “improving the study, work and career development conditions of the entire Técnico community”, the candidate defended adapting teaching to the “profound technological and social changes that are currently taking place”. Rogério Colaço exemplified this point: “people of my generation sometimes tend to think that we can continue to teach 18th and 19th century subjects with 20th century methodologies, and they forget that it’s 2023 in the 21st century. We can’t do that – everything has changed”. The incumbent candidate added “if we don’t keep up with this change, we will quickly lose our ability to train and empower our students at the highest level.”

Also, as part of this “vision of modernisation and development of IST for the decade”, Rogério Colaço said it is necessary to “strengthen and improve the conditions for further research at Técnico”. This will be achieved by aligning “teacher recruitment strategies with scientific strategies” at Técnico affiliated research units.

“Opening Técnico up to society” through the research carried out at the research units and the promotion of projects developed by student organisations were the next topics highlighted. To this end, the candidate used the visual metaphor of a castle, insisting that “the university can’t be something with a wall around it” which, once a year, opens the door for students to enter and, once a year, opens it again for students to leave. Rogério Colaço argued that since Técnico is “a public institution, largely paid by taxpayers”, the School must “contribute to the development of society”, and that “cannot be done without strenghtening the link between Técnico and business. Técnico will help companies to produce more wealth, more added value, more qualified jobs”. Rogério Colaço also defended that this is crucial “to stop the bleeding of talented young people to foreign countries”, which he considers to be the country’s main current problem.

Rogério Colaço highlighted his intention to “continue investing in the School’s infrastructure” by modernising it and promoting sustainability. “The management of an institution like Técnico, in terms of investment in infrastructure, has to be involved in projects that, even if they aren’t carried out during the mandate in force, can be carried out by whoever comes next,” he pointed out. With regard to the Alameda campus, he mentioned the construction of buildings in the south and north gardens, to replace the prefabricated buildings that exist there, and an underground car park to remove surface parking. He also mentioned the Taguspark campus landscaping project and the approval of the CTN Campus requalification.

After the hearing there was a Q&A session, during which the audience questioned the candidate on issues such as the financing of public higher education and Técnico’s staff recruitment model. This discussion involved the entire Técnico community including non-teaching staff, students, researchers and professors.

The School Council will hold a hearing on Rogério Colaço’s candidacy for president on 30th November. The election of the Técnico president is scheduled for 19th and 20th December.

The documents for the Election of the President of Instituto Superior Técnico (2024-2027), including Rogério Colaço’s candidacy documents, are available at https://eleicoes.tecnico.ulisboa.pt/.