The SASUC

The Social Services of the University of Coimbra (SASUC) were created by Decree-Law n.º 47303, the 7th November 1966.

Since their creation, they have been framed according to different models, at moments whose significance is important to remember. Since their creation depended on the Rector of the UC, although understood as a body with legal personality and autonomous government, from 1980 onwards, with the publication of Decree-Law n.º 132/80, of 17 May, these Services were established as legal person governed by public law, endowed with administrative and financial autonomy, directly dependent on the Ministry of Education. This framework was revoked in 1993, with the publication of Decree-Law no. education, which was responsible for defining the management model to be adopted and choosing the most appropriate instruments to implement the policy defined by the Government.

The current legal and organic framework stems from a profound restructuring of the management model and the organizational structure of SASUC, implemented in 2012, in line with that recommended in the Legal Regime of Higher Education Institutions (RJIES - Law n.º 62/2007, of 10 of September). This restructuring implied a greater alignment of SASUC with the University of Coimbra, not only from the perspective of rationalizing structures and better use of common resources to the Higher Education Institution, but also from the perspective of improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the University's Social Action responses to the challenges of a new context of strong budgetary restrictions and a decrease in the number of students enrolled in higher education, as a consequence of the demographic contraction of the Portuguese population.

From 2012 to 2015, there were several and frequent changes to the organic structure of SASUC, which has remained stable in the last 2 years. In 2017, it is worth noting the publication, in Diário da República, of a revision to the General Regulations of SASUC, decided by a rector's order of October 4th 2016, which created the SASUC Management Council as a collective body of the SASUC, replacing the Management Board of the UC (provided for in the first wording of Regulation no. 61/2012, of February 17th) and of the Administrative Council (provided for in Decree-Law no. 129/93 and extinguished by the RJIES). With this change, the aim was to improve the operation of the collective body responsible for the administrative, patrimonial, financial and human resources management of SASUC.

With an undeniable history, SASUC are an unavoidable reference in social action in a university context.