Comment by pjmlp

In Portugal it depends on which university degree you go to, there are for all levels.

If you want a higher education degree focus on what the industry is using today, you go to a politécnico, or técnico superior school.

If you want more focus to learning to learn, with more broader horizons, then you go into plain old university.

If you want to broaden the horizons, but still have some contact with what is industry is using today, you go into an applied engineering degree.

Additionally, similar to Germany with their Azubis program, you can just go to a technical school, with focus on being industry prepared, learning on the job during summer internships, and still leave the door open for going into the university later on, e.g. técnico professional.

The problem are the places that only have one way to approach higher education.