History

Egas Moniz - Cooperativa de Ensino Superior, C.R.L. emerged in 1998 from the partial spin-off of CESPU - Cooperativa de Ensino Superior Politécnico e Universitário C.R.L. At that time, it became head of the Instituto Superior de Ciências da Saúde – Sul (ISCS - Sul). Since then, it has been developing an autonomous educational and health education project that led to the creation, in 1999, of the Escola Superior de Saúde Egas Moniz (ESSEM) and the change of the ISCS - Sul designation for the Instituto Superior de Ciências da Saúde Egas Moniz (ISCSEM) in 2005.

It was considered at that time, as it is today, that civil society has a fundamental role to play in building a pluralistic educational society, promoting the defense of fundamental rights and freedoms in the field of education and teaching, and in particular, freedom of teaching and learning, the right to an educational option, equal opportunities and conditions of access and attendance within the educational system.

Therefore, an educational project mainly focused in Health Sciences was advocated since it was recognized serious shortcomings in this area and, through the construction of this project, contribute, within the framework of its activities, to the modernization and improvement of science and health , for the development of the Portuguese society, for the improvement of their life quality and well-being, and for cooperation between countries in these areas, especially with Portuguese-speaking countries.

EGAS MONIZ and its two higher education institutions, the Instituto Universitário Egas Moniz (IUEM) and the Escola Superior de Saúde Egas Moniz (ESSEM) are a reference in the field of health education in our country.