Professional development of higher education teachers (PD) has not yet received the desired attention in some countries, particularly in Portugal. Detached from national policies, PD has had little expression in the policies of portuguese higher education institutions (HEI), contrary to what is observed in some countries (Almeida, 2021a). Research has also been addressing this theme (Kuzhabekova, et al, 2015), providing significant contributions to the understanding of PD processes. With Portugal's integration in the ‘Bolonha Process’, learning and teaching in higher education have gained protagonism (Almeida & Costa, 2020). A fresh professionalism of academics is advocated as essential for pedagogical innovation, and the lack of pedagogical preparation among teachers and the mismatch between declared theory and theory in practice are problematized (Almeida, Viana & Alves, 2022; Trigwell et al, 2008). The diversity of initiatives and practices implemented by HEI (Day, 2017) and the impact of PD programmes on teachers and organizations (e.g., Hanbury, et al; Parsons et al, 2012) have been widely demonstrated. In Portugal, recent studies highlight the work of pedagogical advisory services (Xavier & Leite, 2019) and initiatives promoted by Polytechnic HEI (Gomes & Alves, 2023) leaving unexplored what is being done in this domain by portuguese universities. Therefore, this study aims to map the PD initiatives and the associated understanding of PD (Almeida, 2021b) of all portuguese public universities (14), identifying their underlying modalities, and objectives. Using a matrix for document analysis (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2006), a collection containing the Strategic Plans and Activity Plans of all universities was assembled. In a second phase, an exploratory analysis of institutional websites was conducted to i) characterize the measures supporting teacher PD identified in the first phase of the study, and ii) identify other initiatives not found in the previous analysis. The analysis allowed the characterizition of the PD vision of portuguese universities, where the dominant conception of PD is associated with the idea of structured training and the implementation of initiatives more or less scattered, with varying degrees of consolidation and coverage. Initiatives include i) induction and continuous training; ii) structured short and medium/long-term training; iii) scientific meetings, sharing forums and communities of practice; iv) dissemination of best practices; v) social recognition and financial support. These initiatives derive either from separate measures or from measures integrated into organizational policies.

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