The results of applications for access to higher education, out on Wednesday, show that 51,291 candidates have enrolled – an increase of 1,666 candidates, or 3.4%, over 2018 when 49,625 enrolled.

"This is very positive, it shows that the Portuguese want to study more," Heitor said.

Around 46% of young people in their 20s are currently in higher education, a figure "much higher" than in 2015, when it was 40%, or in 2005, when it was around 30%.

For Heitor, these results represent "an important step" in the Government's goal of reaching the end of the next decade with six out of every 10 people in their 20s attending higher education.

The number of foreign students in higher education "has increased by more than 50% in the last three years, and this year initial data, from mid-July, already show an increase of about 40% in the number of foreign candidates to Portuguese higher education," the vast majority coming from Portuguese-speaking countries.

This increase in demand is "a sign of the quality and confidence of higher education in Portugal," he said, adding that "it is a factor of confidence mainly of the societies of Portuguese-speaking countries."

Brazilians make up a third of all foreign students in Portugal, followed by increasing numbers from Angola, Cabo Verde, Guinea Bissau and Sao Tome and Principe.

Manuel Heitor also pointed to the "growing number" of European students studying for doctorates and postgraduate degrees in Portugal in recent years, particularly from Italy, Spain and France.

"The number of students coming to Portugal to study has increased eight times in the last twenty years, as this year we have more than 16,000 foreign students in Portugal, most of them in the Erasmus programme. In the year 2000 there were around 2,000 Erasmus students," he said.