More than ten universities in mainland China have suspended Portuguese-language studies over the past three years, after course offerings peaked at around 60 institutions, according to the Portuguese Institute of the Orient (IPOR).
Currently, 39 universities in mainland China offer Portuguese courses, joined by a further five in Macau, bringing the total to 44 institutions, according to figures provided to Lusa by IPOR’s leadership.
“The peak of course provision was in the 2022-23 academic year, with approximately 55 to 60 universities offering Portuguese-language studies. We were unable to obtain exact figures,” the institute said. IPOR’s mandate covers the preservation and dissemination of the Portuguese language and culture in the Orient.
The contraction follows two decades of strong expansion in Portuguese-language teaching in China, driven primarily by deepening economic and diplomatic ties with Portuguese-speaking countries.
According to Manuel Duarte João Pires, an academic at the Macao Polytechnic University (MPU), one of the institutions that suspended its offering was Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, in Guangdong province.
“It had a minor programme — a 2+2 model, meaning a dual-certification arrangement — and that no longer exists,” said the researcher, who authored the study “Twenty Years of Portuguese Teaching in China: Exponential, Saturated and the Future”, published in August.
The first bachelor’s degree programme in Portuguese in China was established at the Beijing Broadcasting Institute, now the Communication University of China, initially designed to train professionals to meet the diplomatic requirements of relations with Portuguese-speaking countries, particularly those in Africa.
Following the interruption caused by the Cultural Revolution between 1966 and 1976, and the subsequent resumption of foreign-language teaching, Portuguese gradually gained ground within China’s university system.
Until 2005, only three universities offered undergraduate degrees in Portuguese. China’s globalisation and modernisation, combined with the growth of economic relations with countries such as Brazil and Angola, transformed the language into a tool for employability.
The number of institutions offering Portuguese rose from 19 universities in the 2012-13 academic year to 37 in 2017 and 56 in 2022, when more than 6,000 students were enrolled and there were over 300 teaching staff.
Pandemic and Artificial Intelligence
In recent years, however, the expansion has lost momentum, with some universities suspending courses and others scaling back their offerings.
“Then came the pandemic, and now the question of Artificial Intelligence [AI], as well as STEM courses [Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics], which are in high demand among families and academic institutions,” said Manuel Pires.
For the researcher, revitalising Portuguese within Chinese higher education requires strengthening the links between universities, companies and institutions operating in Portuguese-speaking countries. “I see very little movement on this front — I do not know whether it is due to political considerations — but bringing civil society into the university is extremely difficult,” he stressed.
Among the proposals set out in the study are the integration of professional internships into degree programmes, the development of partnership projects with companies, and the regular participation of industry professionals in university settings. The objective is to align academic training more closely with labour market needs and to diversify Portuguese-language teaching through specialisations linked to different sectors.
Portuguese as a Professional Tool
In the Chinese context, Pires advocates the creation of interdisciplinary programmes that allow Portuguese to be used as a professional instrument, including in areas such as civil engineering, public health and e-commerce.
Such training could, for example, serve engineering projects in Angola or Mozambique, public health cooperation initiatives with Brazil, or e-commerce operations targeting Portuguese-speaking markets.
The researcher also argues for greater use of digital technologies and for recognising the cultural and humanistic dimension of the Portuguese language. In his view, Portuguese should not be seen solely as a professional instrument, but also as “a window for understanding” the societies and cultures of the Portuguese-speaking world.
Despite the current stagnation, Pires does not consider the phenomenon to be unique to Portuguese, viewing it as connected to the broader transformations that AI is driving in language education.
“From the outset, the language has been associated with its economic power. In other words, the two are inseparable,” he said, adding that, “in the medium term”, the future of Portuguese in China will continue to depend on economic and political relations with Portuguese-speaking countries. “It has already reached a level of 56 universities — there is not much more room to grow within higher education,” he observed, noting that “exponential growth is not infinite” and that the current phase may represent a “natural process”.
In Macau, however, the situation is different, given that Portuguese is one of the territory’s official languages. “It is harder for things to change there as they do in mainland China, where there is a more pragmatic, more economic perspective on course offerings,” he concluded.
Source: Diário Económico
Original article: https://www.diarioeconomico.co.mz/2026/09/16/mundo/china/china-mais-de-dez-universidades-suspenderam-ensino-de-portugues-nos-ultimos-tres-anos/
