Despite the economic crisis, revenue from the motorways is up, according to the national road company Estradas de Portugal – EP, with former virtual or SCUT toll roads reporting the biggest increases.

Interestingly enough the motorways in the Greater Lisbon Area and in the northern part of the country saw their receipts dropping during the first half of the year, the south being obviously the most traveled through part of the country.

EP highlighted the strong performance of the Algarve A22 motorway, saying that it saw a rise of 22 percent in its income, which amounts to about a 1.6 million euro increase when compared to the same period of 2012. The statement went further in saying that the peak summer period wasn’t taken into consideration when this study was made and since that is by far the peak traffic time for the Algarve, the numbers might actually be higher.

It’s an interesting time for these numbers to be coming out because there have only been two months since EP chief Antonio Ramalho expressed real concerns over the sustainability of SCUT motorways. This is due to the fact that vehicles without an electronic tagging device which use the SCUT motorways, cost as much to bill as the amount they pay in order to use the road.

Despite these positive numbers Mr. Romalho argued that the current system is unsustainable and it won’t be capable in the long term to maintain and preserve the road network.

We do know that a new toll system is in the works for the A22, we have to wait and see how these things will evolve in the future.

A spokesperson for the Algarve University said that they are expecting around 300 international students to come follow their courses, while less local students will be going abroad. This is largely due to the economic crisis, which is making universities abroad much harder to attend financially, so some foreign students find the Algarve University as a more affordable alternative, and on the local front, it means that going to study abroad for Portuguese students is that much harder.

There are a couple of numbers to back this up, according to a coordinator for International Relations and Mobility, fifteen out of the two hundred local students that were intending on studying abroad, have changed their minds mainly because of the bad economic times.

The coordinator laments however the decreased ability of Portuguese students to study abroad, since becoming internationalized prepares a student for the real world. The problem stems from the fact that the scholarships are relatively low and there has to be some self-financing and this limits people quite a bit.

Now shifting our attention to the approximate three hundred international students that are expected to show up for their first courses this month, half of them come from within the European Union while the other half come mainly from Brazil, but Russia, Bosnia, Canada and Qatar show up as well.

When you add them all up, more than fifty different foreign nationalities will be studying at the University of Algarve this year, however it should be noted that this isn’t the largest that the institution has hosted.

Last year the University hosted about four hundred and fifty international students, and that number is expected to either be matched or surpassed this year.

For those considering a trip to the region to visit the university, you should consider our Algarve car hire services as a means of getting around the place in a quick manner.