The Lancaster students will be completing their second Masters degree in Lisbon or taking an additional semester in Lisbon to complement their Lancaster degree and gain a continental perspective.

Universidade Católica Portuguesa has been Lancaster’s long-standing partner offering reciprocal study programmes, mainly at Masters level, through Católica-Lisbon School of Business and Economics.

Dr Radka Newton, who manages the partnership, visited Católica-Lisbon this autumn to oversee a smooth transition of the Lancaster cohort. While there she also met with the Católica group who embarked on their Double Masters degree last week in Lancaster.

Dr Newton said: “In 2011/12 five LUMS and ten Católica students graduated with a Double Masters Degree. It's been a great success and we have seen an increase in interest in this scheme. The biggest advantage is for the students to experience two excellent academic cultures and gain an understanding of different graduate employment markets as well.”

Universidade Católica Portuguesa also has a School of Business located in Porto. The Porto Business School is truly unique because many of the academic staff are Lancaster alumni. Dr Paulo Alves, research fellow at Lancaster University and an academic at Porto Business School, initiated this partnership. He said: “I have very fond memories of Lancaster from my doctoratal study and I am delighted that my other colleagues who also graduated from Lancaster supported the idea of a Double Masters degree. I am sure that this partnership will strengthen the alumni relations in Portugal as we will now share alumni between the two institutions.”

Thanks to their proactive approach and passion to connect Porto with Lancaster, the Lancaster alumni prepared a proposal to LUMS for a Double Masters Degree programme that was launched this autumn. Porto Business School Masters students will now be able to combine their Masters studies with a year in Lancaster and achieve a Double Degree.

Dinheiro Vivo, the financial section of Diario de Noticias, one of Portugal's leading newspapers interviewed Dr Newton during her visit to Porto about this new exciting opportunity.