ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon

ISCTE – IUL (Instituto Universitário de Lisboa) is a Portuguese public tertiary education institution. It is located in the city centre of Lisbon, in Cidade Universitária, adjoining the Institute of Social Sciences (ICS) and Institute of Geography and Spatial Planning (IGOT) of the University of Lisbon. ISCTE was founded in 1972, starting with three degrees and 296 students. Formerly called Instituto Superior de Ciências do Trabalho e da Empresa (in English, Higher Institute of Business and Labour Sciences), its full name was dropped in 2009 when it became a university institute of foundational nature.

In 2019 Iscte adopted a new visual identity for its brand, with a new logo and graphic norms, and a change of name to Iscte – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, or simply Iscte (written like this, not like an acronym). In 2022, the year that it celebrated 50 years, Iscte inaugurated a new centre in Sintra, which started with eight degrees.

As of today, Iscte is widely considered a fully-fledged public research university despite its traditional designation, as reflected in national news coverage of the performance of Portuguese universities internationally and open, external assessments by international organisations. ISCTE Business School holds institutional accreditations from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) and Association of MBAs (AMBA).