Over the 40 years of its existence, the Piaget Institute has consolidated its higher education, research and intervention activities in the communities where it has established its Campuses. The main consolidation agents have naturally been its Schools and Institutes, always working in a broad and plural perspective that has placed creativity, innovation and responsibility at its centre, and always guiding their activities by respect for fundamental human values and their inclusion into personal and intellectual education and training of each and every graduate.
Moreover, the Piaget Institute’s project has not remained limited to Portugal and has extended across the national borders. The Institute has a growing international dimension, developed through the expansion of the institution itself and through the results of a number of partnerships. It is also economically sustainable, has an entrepreneurial spirit and is open to new opportunities, all of which is clearly consistent with its constitutive principles. Thus, the Institute has been present in the Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP) since 1999, and is currently established in Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique.
Always attentive to the problems arising in the communities that surround the Institute’s activity hubs, it defines suitable intervention measures and then proposes them either on its own or in association with other civil society institutions, and thus provides incentives for the establishment of new entities that streamline the conjoint actions and establish bridges between the Institute and the community through associated projects, such as the APDES – Piaget Agency for Development (Agência Piaget para o Desenvolvimento), Piaget Health (Piaget Saúde), Piaget Education, Training and Consulting (Piaget Formação e Consultoria), Jean Piaget NucliSol, Piaget Food and Nutrition (Piaget Alimentar), Litoalentejo, and Piaget Publishing (Edições Piaget).
Vision
To contribute to human and social development through the establishment and consolidation of Organic Units that implement education, research and community intervention projects based on scientific, pedagogical and creative freedom, proximity, fundamental human values and networking.
Strategic Axes
Solid benchmarking in all the educational projects the Institute undertakes, consolidation of the existing education/training offer, extension of the undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate education/training, and intensification of the commitment to continuing and professional training, which also includes submission of new courses to the national Agency for Accreditation and Evaluation of Higher Education (A3ES – Agência de Avaliação e Acreditação do Ensno Superior) and the Directorate-General of Higher Education (DGES – Direção-Geral do Ensino Superior).
Thus, the Piaget Institute aims to generate strategic partnerships and collaboration protocols, to increase teacher exchange both within the Group’s network of establishments and with other institutions, and to increase foreign students’ incoming mobility, namely from the Community of the Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP – Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa) and Europe.
Main Goal
To reinforce the educational project of each and every higher education establishment and Campus by:
- consolidating the education/training offer;
- designing and implementing graduate and undergraduate education/training;
- designing and implementing postgraduate education/training;
- designing and implementing continuing and professional education/training.
Providing momentum and intensifying the Campuses’ community intervention/outreach activities and projects through useful social and economic partnerships, established in accordance with each Campus’ activity field.
This shall not only interact symbiotically with the service offered to the community, but also provide platforms for learning, practical application and dissemination of knowledge, and revenue production.
Main Goal
To increase the number and scope of intervention/outreach projects through partnerships originated both in the direct social and economic context of each Campus, as well as among Campuses.
Reinforcement of the awareness that research is a driving force of knowledge and scientific competence provision, and the consequent increase in the number of research projects developed in the scientific fields of the Institute’s higher education institutions, promotion of multidisciplinary teams’ establishment among the Campuses and participation in international teams and projects.
Scientific articles production and participation in conferences is also focused on, which is a recognized added value for both individual and institutional projection.
Main Goal
To increase the number and scope of research projects and scientific production in the main scientific areas of the Institute’s courses, mainly through partnerships among Campuses and the PI Research Unit – the RECI.
Consolidation and extension of the Internal Quality Assurance System’s application through the progressive update of the Quality Manual and implementation of the evaluation, measurement and results dissemination subsystems.
Main Goal
To extend the application of the Internal Quality Assurance System.
Provision of sustained physical and human resources management, improvement and stabilisation.
The priorities include the Teaching Career Statutes implementation, computer facilities update, bibliographic resources increase and the VPN network access extension to all the PI teachers and students. Also, some buildings will be refurbished, laboratory material updated, and some built assets that are currently redundant for the institution’s core business will be sold.
Main Goal
To improve the infrastructures and to stabilise the teaching and non-teaching staff.
Reinforcement of the Piaget Institute’s international presence, partnerships and exchange in terms of teaching and research, both among the Piaget Group and with other international entities.
The following activities are understood as an added value for the Institute: sharing of teachers; organisation of joint online seminars or videoconferences; development of dual certification education/training courses; commitment to student mobility, undertaken in collaboration with the International Relations Office; recruitment of students for the pursuit of studies in the courses related to their prior education/training but not directly competing with it; development of partnership publications and research projects; sharing of technological know-how; and digital dissemination of information that facilitates global access.
Finally, the development of platforms and means that foment language proficiency in Portuguese and English is also crucial for the Institute.
Main Goal
To increase the Institution’s international acknowledgement, as well as the number of partnerships and exchange situations among the PI Group and between the PI and other international entities.
Consolidation of the responsibility for social, human and ecological development of societies as part of the Piaget Institute’s affirmation strategy.
A set of initiatives and good practices will be promoted and implemented with the spirit of commitment, responsibility and participation, and in collaboration with the future Social Responsibility Office.
Main Goal
To organize and increase the number and scope of social responsibility initiatives and good practices with a spirit of commitment, responsibility and participation, crucial to the Institute’s strategy affirmation.
