Set in an eco-campus that is one of Europe's largest Botanical Gardens, it has modern facilities, libraries, laboratories, online services, sports facilities and offers multiple opportunities in the sports and cultural fields, accessible to its students, teachers and researchers and other workers, as well as the community at large.

It has Social Action Services that excel for excellence, allowing access to scholarships, modern university residences, canteens, restaurants, computer rooms, and support in the areas of medicine, psychology and nutrition. UTAD students are important assets in academic life.

On September 14, 1979, the IPVR was elevated to Instituto Universitário, adopting the designation of University Institute of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (I UTAD ). Less than 10 years later, in recognition of its intense activity in the fields of teaching and scientific and technological research, it was promoted to the category of University, on 22 March 1986. UTAD , Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro .

Although it is one of the youngest universities in the country, it has gained, in the national and international university panorama, an area recognized as an academic center of innovation and quality, with a strategic vision for the future that also contemplates the development of the region where it is integrated.

Concern about regional development has been mainly focused on the transfer of knowledge, in effect in the competitiveness and attractiveness of the territories, such as the Science and Technology Park "Regia Douro Park", and the Center for Excellence in Vine and Wine, but also in the creation of spaces for pre-incubation of companies, encouraging entrepreneurship and promoting links to the business world as a potential source of insertion of students in the labor market.

The strategic plan for the four-year period 2017-2021 has assumed an ambition to renew itself, to leverage all its resources and to reaffirm its role as reference institution and agent of territorial cohesion. But, also affirming itself as Eco-University, functioning in an eco-campus with exemplary environmental management, where can be observed species coming from the four corners of the world.

Students from more than 40 countries have a wide range of courses offered at four university-based schools - Agrarian and Veterinary Sciences, Humanities and Social Sciences, Science and Technology and Life and Environmental Sciences - and a school of polytechnical nature - School of Health - as well as a wide range of quality infrastructures.

The educational offer includes the academic degree courses promoted and coordinated by the Schools, namely 32 first cycle, 3 integrated master's degree, 41 2nd cycle (master's degree) and 19 3rd cycle (doctorate). The Doctoral College, a transversal unit of education and research, assumes the coordination of teaching and research activities at doctoral level and advanced training, in close coordination with the Schools and research centers

UTAD also hosts six research centers and eight centers of research centers of the Universities of Aveiro, Beira Interior, Coimbra, Lisbon, Minho and Porto, recognized by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT).

WHAT DISTINGUISH US

1. The first higher education institution in the interior of Northern Portugal;
2. He was born as an agricultural polytechnic school in 1973 and grew up as a university, offering today about 100 undergraduate, masters and doctoral degrees;
3. It develops research and promotes the valorisation of knowledge and innovation, through research centers inserted in the national network and with extensive international connections;
4. It cemented the relationship with the city of Vila Real and the whole region, becoming intensely involved in its development;
5. It has transformed an old farm on a campus that is one of the largest botanical gardens in Europe, where we can observe species from all corners of the world;
6. It has modern facilities, libraries, laboratories, online services, sports equipment and offers multiple opportunities in the sports and cultural field;
7. It is a learning ecosystem made up of multidisciplinary knowledge and a school that values ​​the relations of proximity between the more than 500 teachers and the 7000 students coming from Portugal and around 40 countries;
8. You are in a safe city, with easy connections to the country and abroad, and with a high quality of life;
9. It offers Social Action Services that excel for excellence, with modern university residences, canteens, restaurants, computer room, access to scholarships and support in the areas of medicine, psychology and nutrition;
10. It works in network with the universities of Portugal, Europe and the World, integrating several consortiums and actively promoting projects in partnership.