The university of Beira Interior

The University of Beira Interior (UBI) has been training students in science and textile technology since 1975.

The school was originally founded as a polytechnic institute, offering courses in textile engineering to support local industry. It became a full-fledged university in 1986 and has since expanded its curriculum to include degrees in both Textile & Apparel Design, as well as Fashion Design.

UBI’s mission is to train highly-qualified individuals through a mix of study, training and research.

For Madalena Pereira, VP of the Science and Textile Technologies Department and Director of the Fashion Design undergraduate and master’s programs at UBI, there is a single driving force behind UBI’s curriculum: industry.

UBI’s long-standing partnership with Lectra reflects this policy. Pereira explains, “The Portuguese industry works mainly with Lectra, so our choice was Lectra as well. We need to train people for the industry, so we train them on the solutions that the industry uses.” UBI’s practical approach to learning has served the school well. According to Pereira, most local companies count at least one UBI graduate among their staff and statistics have shown that students increasingly prefer UBI to other schools.