Partnership of success in higher education in Portugal:

The case of bachelor's degree in Retail Management

Abstract

Since 2007, ESTGA-UA has been offering the Bachelor's Degree in Retail Management, which was previously named Bachelor in Commerce. Year after year, the Bachelor in Commerce had become less attractive, having filled only 33% of the available positions in 2013. Internal and external factors contributed to this negative scenario, especially the name of the course, the weak connection to the business environment and the reduction of the number of candidates for higher education.

Before this scenario, there was a need to take measures that could revitalize de degree and enable its continuity. With this purpose, the main project was to carry out its restructuring contemplating, simultaneously, the study plan, the inclusion of curricular internships in each of the school years, which was very rare, at the time, in courses of the area of Business Sciences in Portugal, the change of the degree’s name and also setting up a partnership with a large national company in an active and long-term collaboration.