Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas

A Escola Superior Colonial (The Colonial School)

It was established by a decree of January 18, 1906, from the Ministry of the Navy and the Overseas. This "established the Society of Geography of Lisbon, leaving it to the same society and under the overall inspection of the Government led at the time by King, at Devaughn de Chelas, a Colonial School of Chelas, designed especially to give instruction to those who are dedicated to the workings of our overseas possessions in Chelas.

On October 4, 1906 the decree was published approving the provisional regulation of the Colonial School and on November 13 the same year the ordinance approving its provisional programmes was passed.

The objectives

Recruited at an early stage to the administrative staff, who headed and manned the different levels of territorial administration, graduates of the school have passed on, little by little, to assume administrative and technical functions in the different services that were gradually created, over the years, during the process of development and transformation of political and administrative organization of the so-called overseas territories.

Evolution of the institution

The school name has undergone changes in line with the evolution of ideas on Portugal's overseas policy and the change in its syllabus. The "Course Colonial" had its initial study plan changed in 1919 and changed its name as the "General Colonial Course" expressly defined as higher education.

Initially, the name was the Escola Colonial. In 1927, it changed its name—Escola Superior Colonial (ESC). The Colonial course was replaced in 1946 by courses in "Colonial Administration" and "Higher Colonial Studies". In 1954, the ESC received its new name as the Instituto Superior de Estudos Ultramarinos (ISEU) or Institute of Overseas Studies.

Integration into the Technical University of Lisbon

In 1961, the ISEU joined the Universidade Técnica de Lisboa (Technical University of Lisbon). Its aim remained untouched by these changes, and its mission remained the same: to deliver the higher education in the 'Overseas Sciences', preparing the frameworks for overseas administrations, and cultivating an investigation of scientific problems related to the valuation of the overseas territories, its population and the study of overseas people and their languages.

In 1961, the list of subjects has been revised and the courses came to be called the "Overseas Administration Course" and the "Complementary Course of Overseas Studies"

In 1962, the ISEU got named as the Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Política Ultramarina (ISCSPU) or the School of Social Sciences and Overseas Policy and, over the years of the 1960s, its curricula gradually expanded. New courses closely linked to Sociology and Anthropology were added on—making it the first institution in Portugal dedicated to teaching these sciences.

In 1972 undergraduate degrees were added in Economics and in "Labour Sciences" as well as a degree in Social Sciences.

The post April 25 era

With the change of political regime, after 25 April 1974, the school, as was the case with other universities, went through a difficult period. In December 1976 the restructuring ended and the institution has since been called the Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas (ISCSP) or the School of Social and Political Sciences.

In the academic year 1977-1978, the ISCSP recovered its functioning with a degree in Political and Social Sciences which provisionally replaced the old syllabus. In 1980, by the decree of 17 May, the degrees in Management and Public Administration, Social Communication, Anthropology and Social Work—later renamed Social Policy—were created. The institution returned to its original name after the adjustment made under the Bologna Process. During the decade of the 1980s, in the institute's undergraduate curriculum were included studies in International Relations and the Sociology of Work, and at the end of the decade of the 1990, a degree in Political Science was added on.

Integration with the University of Lisbon

In 2013, the institute was integrated into the new University of Lisbon, as a result of the merger of the University of Lisbon (1911-2013) with the Technical University of Lisbon.

Bologna process

Currently ISCSP offers nine degrees, fourteen master's courses and twelve doctoral specialties, all suitable to Bologna, respectively as 1st, 2nd and 3rd cycles.

Degrees

Masters

In 2009 the MPA (Master on Public Administration) was created, which has been taught since the academic year 2009/2010.

Doctorates

Generally, the activities of ISCSP are adept at qualified training of seniors whose range of skills—both technical-scientific and socio-cultural—allow them a recognized social intervention.

Spaces and equipment

The ISCSP is housed in its own building on the University Campus of the University at the Alto da Ajuda of the Technical University, featuring numerous spaces and equipment. With regard to academic spaces, ISCSP has a total of 40 classrooms, of which 5 are amphitheaters, spread over 4 floors. All rooms are equipped with overhead projectors, multimedia projectors and computers, offering projection capability from video or computer.

The ISCSP has a general library covering an area of 2,029 m², with capacity for 194 simultaneous users, and four living rooms and three study rooms of diverse capacity to work continuously from 8:00 to 21:00. These rooms are also equipped to receive students suffering from motor disabilities.

The ISCSP also has centres for stationery, reprographics, a canteen-bar with supporting facilities, two ATM machines and a bank branch. The entire facility offers access to students with physical disabilities.