The University of the Algarve has elected a new rector: Alexandra Teodósio, who was the top-voted candidate on Tuesday, November 12, after a vote by the General Council at the Gambelas Campus in Faro.
Three candidates were in the running: Nuno Bicho, Alexandra Teodósio, and Luís Ribeiro. In the final round, Teodósio won with 19 votes, while Bicho received 12. There were 32 voters in total.
Her official swearing-in ceremony will take place on December 17, the day the university marks its 46th anniversary.
After her victory, Teodósio thanked the General Council for their trust and spoke about her goals for the next few years.
“I am convinced that together – from our campuses and our living, social and natural laboratories across the Algarve – we will be able to establish ourselves as a benchmark of sustainability and inclusion, creating a university with a global impact economically, socially and environmentally,” said the new rector, the first woman to ever take on the university’s leading role.
“It’s time to seize the momentum and let UAlg be a light of science that shines beyond our region,” she said, revealing her goal to position the university and the Algarve at the forefront of the “future’s solutions”.
Teodósio also thanked outgoing rector Paulo Águas and promised to “build bridges between people, ideas, nature and cultures, with empathy, science and action.”
Before her election, Alexandra Teodósio served as Vice-Rector for Research (2017–2021) and Vice-Rector for Internationalisation and Sustainable Development during Paulo Águas’s two terms.
