Waiting for the Tide to Change? Strategies for Survival of Portuguese Private HEIs

The topic of declining private higher education (PHE) has become a timely one, especially for many countries that had previously experienced a rapid and massive expansion of their systems of higher education, and of PHE in particular. In the case of Portugal this was very likely due to the stabilisation and then the slight decline in the number of applicants and the steady expansion of the public system Thus, the Portuguese system has become an interesting case study of the several types of strategies that may be adopted by PHE institutions when facing a declining student demand.