About Us
We intend to promote the full development of our students through integrated technical-scientific, sociocultural and human training.
“We invest in pedagogical quality, supported by a qualified and motivated teaching staff in the development of lines of scientific research.”
— Professor Doctor, Jorge Manuel de Azevedo Pereira Simões
ISPGAYA aims to promote the full development of its students through integrated technical-scientific, sociocultural and human training.
Based on human values, ISPGAYA emphasises the personal and community dimension, training its students in responsible freedom, openness to the future, flexibility in change, solidarity with the world in which it is inserted, participatory responsibility, respect for the ideas and conscience of others and the commitment to building human fraternity.
ISPGAYA also seeks to stimulate the creation and publicising of culture and science through the CID - Research and Development Centre, namely the journal Politécnica, the journal PEC - Psicologia, Educação e Cultura and other relevant scientific publications.
Training Offered
The ISPGAYA training project is based on a set of degrees, professional higher technical courses and masters, aimed at young citizens, and also at those who, albeit less young, have worker-student status. For both, it is crucial to guarantee quality in this higher education, to enhance their employability, acknowledging the decisive contribution that more qualified employees can have in services and in companies.
ISPGAYA seeks, in the diversity of the training offer, to develop applied research projects, and the connection that has been made with the business fabric and other public and private organisations. It also intends to be a structuring pillar in the development of the region, seeking to create conditions for innovation and for strengthening the competitiveness of companies, with the aim of modernising institutions.
The importance of the mobility of students and teachers in the European space is a strategy of ISPGAYA to promote the insertion of students in the world and in the job market.
As a complement, the training offer extends to a set of Postgraduate and specialisation courses.
ISPGAYA continuously assesses the quality of training provided by monitoring trainees in companies, and by the opinion of highly qualified professionals who take part in the training process in the different courses offered. In addition, ISPGAYA regularly promotes the internal self-assessment process, in accordance with quality standards for education and training institutions (ISO 9001:2015; ISO 21001:2020; ISO 14001:2015).
Mission and objectives of the Institution
ISPGAYA’s mission is to train professionals, qualified with higher-level academic degrees, with highly developed skills that allow them to understand scientific knowledge, develop it and apply it in their daily activities, ensuring quality and productivity for employers.
We also seek to prepare citizens who are sensitive to change and innovative entrepreneurship, capable of promoting their own professional reconversion, where necessary, encouraging effective mobility in contact with other professional experiences nationally and internationally. After completing their courses, in active life, they will be able to return to the Institute to continue their training throughout their lives.
Such aspirations can be expressed through keywords that summarise the essential elements in the organisation and practice of Instituto Superior Politécnico GAYA: Qualification, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Social Responsibility. These four elements focus on people, their skills and their action. We therefore defend a proactive institution, where human resources overlap with other resources.
Instituto Superior Politécnico GAYA is meant to be, increasingly, an institution chosen by young people and adults:
- For the excellence of its technical-scientific education, supported by quality, attractive, differentiated and competitive training, which facilitates employability, flexibility and mobility;
- For the continuous improvement of the quality of services provided to the community, training and creating conditions for the successful placement of highly qualified graduates on the market, as a result of their skills and ethics;
- For the solid human and civic formation;
- From the perspective of continuous training it provides;
- For the creative, innovative and useful way in which it serves the community, intervening in cultural life and in shaping the social and cultural agenda of the municipality of Vila Nova de Gaia and neighbouring areas;
- By encouraging research;
- For the stimulating and differentiating academic climate it provides, fostering cooperation.
At ISPGAYA, we seek to increase the levels of acknowledgment of the institution, contributing to consolidate the connection of this Higher Polytechnic Institute to schools, the market and society, to establish itself as a reference entity in education in the Region and in the Country.
We also seek to be socially renowned for the prestige of the teaching staff, the excellent training of its students and graduates, the professionalism of non-teaching staff, highly qualified technicians, motivated, committed and with a strong sense of belonging and pride to the institution.
Objectives of ISPGAYA:
- Ensure high levels of training quality;
- Ensure strategies and techniques that can contribute to increasing levels of school success;
- Ensure high levels of employability;
- Promote the reception of foreign students and encourage the mobility of ISPGAYA students;
- Promote the mobility of teachers and staff;
- Promoting training for teaching and non-teaching staff;
- Present new and innovative training offers that respond to emerging areas and diagnosed as necessary for regional and national development;
- Attract new audiences – “unlimited and lifelong training”;
- Develop strategies that enable higher education for all those who have the conditions to be student workers, in line with after-work hours;
- Consolidate and strengthen the teaching staff, enhancing their quality.
ISPGAYA is a polytechnic higher education institution, acknowledged as being of public interest.
President's Message
Welcome to ISPGAYA!
With almost 35 years of existence, ISPGAYA has maintained a strong commitment to polytechnic training since the beginning, offering, through its two schools, courses in the areas of engineering, management and tourism. Our educational offer includes professional higher technical courses, bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, postgraduate degrees and other professional training. ISPGAYA thus positions itself as an institution capable of guaranteeing lifelong training.
This training is based on knowledge of a professional nature, complemented by guided research and experimental development, which prepares our students for the challenges and opportunities of the real world, aiming for employability in all courses.
Along with technical and scientific training, the close connection with society and the business world is another of the pillars of ISPGAYA, thus providing a service to the community in the areas of our competence.
We are also committed to internationalization, through partnerships and projects with institutions from different countries, and attentive to the globalization of the job market.
To achieve these objectives, we invest in pedagogical quality, supported by a qualified and motivated teaching staff, in the development of lines of oriented scientific research and in the promotion of quality policies in the different areas of activity at ISPGAYA.
We are still aware of current threats to the stability and development of human societies, such as climate change, political and social instability, and new challenges brought by technology, where Artificial Intelligence can be highlighted. In this sense, ISPGAYA is also committed to the principles and practices of sustainable development, being a signatory to the Commitment of Higher Education Institutions to sustainable development within the scope of the Sustainable Campus Network – Portugal (RCS-PT).
Technological development, in particular, will mean that in the coming years, many of the professions we know will disappear, while new ones will emerge. In this context of uncertainty and permanent change, but also conducive to the emergence of new opportunities, continuing higher education education is one of the most effective ways of preparing professionals for this reality.
We therefore invite everyone to discover and explore ISPGAYA's training offer and join us in building a more sustainable, innovative and inclusive future.
— Professor Doctor, Jorge Manuel de Azevedo Pereira Simões,
President of ISPGAYA