HELP! DOES ANYBODY KNOW THE FCT PHONE NUMBER?

[susy]

I am trying to upload my certificates but I am getting an error as the system asks me to grade my UK PhD, in numbers (1-20) or in grades (fair to excellent). As much as I would like to choose excellent reality is that in the UK, PhDs do not have grades at all.
If I choose "qualitative" and then "other", the system asks me for a certificate which I do not know anything about"
So I tried to ask for help online, but the system gives me an error, I cannot post any question...
So, what now?
I think, I am well going to call them... does anyone know the number?

Thank you

[sandra.r.santos]

I am trying to upload my certificates but I am getting an error as the system asks me to grade my UK PhD, in numbers (1-20) or in grades (fair to excellent). As much as I would like to choose excellent reality is that in the UK, PhDs do not have grades at all.
If I choose "qualitative" and then "other", the system asks me for a certificate which I do not know anything about"
So I tried to ask for help online, but the system gives me an error, I cannot post any question...
So, what now?
I think, I am well going to call them... does anyone know the number?

Thank you

Susy this is the number: (351) 213924300

BUT: they are not answering, at least i have tried to ring them about a hundred times (not exagerating!) and it is always busy, so. If you can i suggest if this is an emergency you go directly to FCT. LOja do Cientista ( Hope you are in Lisbon...) http://www.fct.pt/contactos
You may also use Helpdesk but it will probably take too long...
They close at 5.pm

Best of luck!

[susy]

I am in London

This all application is being more difficult than I ever expected!! Not that I thought it would be easy to get the FCT BPD... just the whole application procedure could have been less tricky!!

I'll try to call them, in the end of the day, the online system doesnt work and I have to get this info... or I'll just grade myself as excellent

[sandra.r.santos]

I am in London

This all application is being more difficult than I ever expected!! Not that I thought it would be easy to get the FCT BPD... just the whole application procedure could have been less tricky!!

I'll try to call them, in the end of the day, the online system doesnt work and I have to get this info... or I'll just grade myself as excellent

If you cannot talk to them, tomorrow i am going to FCT and i can ask for you, but as I told you, i can only go tomorrow...

maybe someone here knows the answer... i hope you can reach them by phone.

Fingerscrossed!

Sandra

[susy]

I am in London

This all application is being more difficult than I ever expected!! Not that I thought it would be easy to get the FCT BPD... just the whole application procedure could have been less tricky!!

I'll try to call them, in the end of the day, the online system doesnt work and I have to get this info... or I'll just grade myself as excellent

If you cannot talk to them, tomorrow i am going to FCT and i can ask for you, but as I told you, i can only go tomorrow...

maybe someone here knows the answer... i hope you can reach them by phone.

Fingerscrossed!

Sandra

Thank you Sandra and all of you!!

I managed to talk to them straight away! I think the secret is to select the english option and then the operator option which i think is 9.

Anyway, more bad news for me! they told me I have to use the DGES website in order to have a formal conversion of my degrees, from my undergraduate to my phd. They told me that the table available for conversion states that in the UK, undergraduate grades are the same for masters and phd, which is obviously not true. So they told me to send what I have to the dges for them to convert, but that it is probably going to take longer than we have before the deadline. So now, I am not sure what to do! the website is all in portuguese, the english version is not working and i think i also have to pay, but i am not sure as i dont understand very well!!

I think i will just upload the certificates i have in the fct application, they are all in english from the uk, I am sure they will be able to understand them. I hope they will not penalise me for this.

again thank you for your help!

[sandra.r.santos]

I am in London

This all application is being more difficult than I ever expected!! Not that I thought it would be easy to get the FCT BPD... just the whole application procedure could have been less tricky!!

I'll try to call them, in the end of the day, the online system doesnt work and I have to get this info... or I'll just grade myself as excellent

If you cannot talk to them, tomorrow i am going to FCT and i can ask for you, but as I told you, i can only go tomorrow...

maybe someone here knows the answer... i hope you can reach them by phone.

Fingerscrossed!

Sandra

Thank you Sandra and all of you!!

I managed to talk to them straight away! I think the secret is to select the english option and then the operator option which i think is 9.

Anyway, more bad news for me! they told me I have to use the DGES website in order to have a formal conversion of my degrees, from my undergraduate to my phd. They told me that the table available for conversion states that in the UK, undergraduate grades are the same for masters and phd, which is obviously not true. So they told me to send what I have to the dges for them to convert, but that it is probably going to take longer than we have before the deadline. So now, I am not sure what to do! the website is all in portuguese, the english version is not working and i think i also have to pay, but i am not sure as i dont understand very well!!

I think i will just upload the certificates i have in the fct application, they are all in english from the uk, I am sure they will be able to understand them. I hope they will not penalise me for this.

again thank you for your help!

I can try to help, can you give me the website in Portuguese?

[susy]

Thank you Sandra!

Apparently they gave me the wrong info I think. Somebody else here in this forum told me that I can convert grades myself, I think I had missed that part of the explanation or maybe it was in portuguese.
So I am planning to just give the FCT what I have, certificates and state that there are no grades.

I am ready to submit really, just waiting a bit longer to see if something else comes up to my mind and I want to add it to my CV or application.

When are we supposed to have results? They say 90 days which takes us to Christmas, are we going to have a Christmas present or maybe something beforehand? How long did they take in the previous years?

Anyway, thank you so much for all your help!
If you are applying, I really hope you get it, well I hope all of us get it!

[spca]

Thank you Sandra!

Apparently they gave me the wrong info I think. Somebody else here in this forum told me that I can convert grades myself, I think I had missed that part of the explanation or maybe it was in portuguese.
So I am planning to just give the FCT what I have, certificates and state that there are no grades.

I am ready to submit really, just waiting a bit longer to see if something else comes up to my mind and I want to add it to my CV or application.

When are we supposed to have results? They say 90 days which takes us to Christmas, are we going to have a Christmas present or maybe something beforehand? How long did they take in the previous years?

Anyway, thank you so much for all your help!
If you are applying, I really hope you get it, well I hope all of us get it!

Hello.
I will paste directly the Portuguese paragraph of page 14 of the Assessment Guide that is about this:
source: http://www.fct.pt/apoios/bolsas/concurs ... 013_PT.pdf

Encontram-se também nesta situação [cases that are different from the normal for assessment of candidate's merit for PhD fellowship application] os candidatos com graus académicos estrangeiros. Neste caso é da responsabilidade do candidato apresentar a conversão da sua nota de licenciatura para a escala portuguesa (0-20) e anexar ao formulário de candidatura o documento oficial no qual se baseou para efetuar a conversão. Quando a instituição de ensino superior estrangeira adote a escala de classificação portuguesa não haverá necessidade de conversão devendo o painel considerar a classificação constante no diploma.
Por forma a auxiliar o candidato na classificação dos graus estrangeiros para a classificação portuguesa sugere-se a consulta do sítio da Direção Geral do Ensino Superior:
http://www.dges.mctes.pt/DGES/pt/Reconh ... cAcademico
Os candidatos com graus estrangeiros têm ainda que explicitar claramente no formulário o número de créditos, a classificação final com e sem conversão, e o número de anos do curso frequentado.

Trying to translate:
This case [cases that are different from the normal for assessment of candidate's merit for PhD fellowship application] also applies for candidates with foreign academic degrees. In this case it is the responsibility of the candidate to present the conversion of his/her graduation classification for the Portuguese scale (0-20) and to attach to the application form the official document where he/she based him/herself to make this conversion. When the foreign higher education institution adopts the portuguese classification there is no need for conversion and the evaluation panel should consider the diploma classification.
In order to help the candidate in the conversion of classification of foreign degrees into portuguese classification we suggest the consultation of the site of Direção Geral do Ensino Superior (General Direction of Higher Education):
http://www.dges.mctes.pt/DGES/pt/Reconh ... cAcademico
The candidates with foreign degrees also must state clearly in the form the number of credits, final classification with and without conversion, and the number of years of the degree.

From the many ones in the DGES site, I think the one that applies for conversion to the UK is this (that you can place as the official document where you base the conversion, I think, together with your certificate if it's not somewhere else)
http://www.dges.mctes.pt/NR/rdonlyres/4 ... choUK2.pdf
The table of conversion is the last one, something like this:

UK classification --- Portuguese classification
3 = (40-49%) --- 12
2.2 = (50-59%) --- 14
2.1 = (60-69%) --- 16
1 = (70-100%) --- 18

This is for PhD applications, but if you must state classifications in the postdoc application and nothing else is said anywhere else I guess it's what you must do.

I hope that I didn't make you do any mistake and this makes some sense for you.

All the best.