This presentation is part of a doctoral research project in Sociology, currently underway, which aims to analyse the working conditions and career paths of higher education teachers in Portugal. The research seeks to understand the challenges faced by academic professionals in a context of structural transformations in higher education institutions.

In the context of this conference, the focus is on one of the central sub-themes of the research: the academic career. The academic career in Portugal is regulated by the Statutes of the University Teaching Career (ECDU) and of the Teaching Career of Polytechnic Higher Education (ECPDESP), which establish the criteria for access, progression and evaluation. Access and progression are determined by open competitions that assess merit in terms of teaching, science and organization. Performance evaluation, which is central to progression, prioritizes scientific production, often measured by indexed publications, and less pedagogical performance. The literature, as well as the exploratory interviews carried out as part of this doctoral research, point to the need for more balanced policies that value the multiple dimensions of academic work.

The methodology adopted includes semi-structured biographical interviews with teachers from different areas of knowledge - Social Sciences and Humanities, as well as Exact Sciences and Engineering - belonging to a public university and a polytechnic institute. This qualitative approach makes it possible to explore in depth the professional journeys and meanings attributed by the interviewees to their work experiences, from a comparative perspective between higher education subsystems and subject areas.

During this presentation, the preliminary results obtained so far will be shared, with emphasis on the aspects that characterize the structure of academic careers, the performance evaluation mechanisms and the inherent working conditions. It is hoped that this analysis will contribute to the debate on the challenges faced by academic professionals and on the policies that regulate higher education in Portugal, shedding light on possible ways to enhance the value and sustainability of the academic profession.

Keywords: Higher education, academic career, academic professional, teaching career statutes, biographical interviews.