Students and student life at the University of Coimbra

Irene Vaquinhas
Maria Manuela Tavares Ribeiro

The University of Coimbra (Portugal) clearly captivated successive generations of students, who considered it the institution of future elites and a means to rise to power. Who attended Coimbra as a student? Who were these youths, and what motivated them? This article analyses the student body between 1772 and 1910 from several angles, taking into account the historical context and the students’ socio-economic profiles. It aims to show continuities and discontinuities, sometimes even the breakdown of an academic career. Coimbra students in that period mostly came from a bourgeois background. The University can thus be considered to have been elitist. Based on information regarding the geographical and social origin, the daily routines, and the components of the student experience, the article comes to profiling the average student, the connection to university and urban life, and their social and political strength. In 1916, Aurora Teixeira de Castro, a student at the University of Coimbra Faculty of Law, in Portugal, on learning that she had failed an exam, questioned some members of the jury and challenged their decision, supported by two fellow students using aggressive language. As a result, a case was filed with the academic police against the students, which would lead a movement in solidarity with the “victims” and in protest against the University. An analysis of these proceedings provides a study of gender representations in higher education at a time when women were being admitted to university courses. The rebellious behaviour that surrounded the case, triggered by an individual who was one of the first generation of women to graduate in law in Portugal and would become the first female notary in Europe, also signalled a breaking point with the traditional female archetype associated with passivity, and reflect changes in gender identities and challenges to the symbols of power under the democratic First Republic.

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1.ª Edição
ISBN: 978-989-26-2614-7
eISBN: 978-989-26-2615-4
DOI: 10.14195/978-989-26-2615-4
Série: Investigação
Páginas: 136
Data: Fevereiro, 2025

Keywords
University of Coimbra
students
university life
Coimbra academia