The University continues to carry out scientific research activities, promoting the dissemination and social and economic valorisation of knowledge and technological innovation. It ensures the highest level of human development in its cultural, scientific, artistic, technical, and professional aspects, offering degree-awarding study cycles, CTeSPs (Higher Professional Technical Courses), and other non-degree courses. It seeks to prepare its students for the challenges of a global society and lifelong learning, providing them with scientific knowledge, technical competence, and a transversal education.
The University aims for all its graduates to be global citizens, creative and entrepreneurial, responsible and professional, tolerant, and attentive to the environmental, cultural, and human challenges of a society that strives to be sustainable and equitable. To this end, UMa (University of Madeira) promotes and supports actions and programmes that contribute to the integration of its graduates into the world of work and foster their spirit of initiative and entrepreneurship, as well as the mobility of students and graduates, particularly within the European higher education area.
In terms of its relationship with the surrounding environment, UMa collaborates with the community, government bodies, businesses, professional associations, and higher education and research institutions, discovering, disseminating, and applying knowledge, training staff, carrying out research and development projects, and providing services.
It also develops a teaching and research policy that takes into account the specificities of the Autonomous Region in which it is located, collaborating in the formulation of national and regional education, science, and culture policies, and commenting on legislative projects that concern it. UMa also constitutes an essential element for deepening the internationalisation of the Autonomous Region of Madeira (RAM), seeking to contribute to a greater connection with the diaspora and to the construction of the Lusophone and European areas of education, science, and culture. By its very nature and dynamic, UMa maintains a relationship of commitment and interdependence with the economic, social, and cultural development of RAM.