Professor Jorge Morais Carvalho receives the Professor Doutor Diogo Freitas do Amaral 2025 Award for Teaching Excellence

Professor Jorge Morais Carvalho was the winner of the fifth edition of the Professor Doutor Diogo Freitas do Amaral 2025 Award for Teaching Excellence, granted by NOVA School of Law.

The award ceremony took place during the NOVA School of Law Day, a time to gather and celebrate the values that unite us: excellence, innovation and dedication to teaching and learning. In that same spirit, the President of the Pedagogical Council, Professor Rita Calçada Pires, highlighted that this award represents “a moment when pedagogy, a core element of our School, is celebrated and propelled forward‘. At the same time, it is a public opportunity to honour the memory and legacy of one of our founders, Professor Doutor Diogo Freitas do Amaral”

The award was created to recognise outstanding pedagogical practices and celebrate models of education that promote transformative and high-quality learning. As Rita Calçada Pires explained, “Since its foundation, NOVA School of Law has been committed to enhancing the pedagogy of legal education. This has been one of our core values since our inception — one that we must nurture, develop and maintain to drive us forward, improving and innovating constantly. This award reflects exactly that: it celebrates this constant drive to be and do more and better, including in the pedagogical area”.

This year, the Pedagogical Council decided to grant the award to Professor Jorge Morais Carvalho, ‘”someone who, both metaphorically and literally, wears the NOVA School of Law shirt”, as Rita Calçada Pires highlighted.

Professor Jorge Morais Carvalho was honoured in an atmosphere of sharing and recognition — his dedication to teaching and to the academic community embodying what it truly means to be part of the NOVA School of Law community.

According to Rita Calçada Pires, “the person receiving the Teaching Excellence Award today is one of those names that will always be linked to our School, for all that he has achieved and for the way he inspires students to learn and to engage in research in his areas of expertise — whether through clear explanations, creative case studies, or research projects that bridge teaching and research.”

The President of the Pedagogical Council also highlighted “the creative way in which the professor designs engaging case studies, his brilliance in advancing an under-explored legal field in Portugal, and his energy in involving students in his classes and projects”

“Over the years, he has been someone students turn to — someone who dedicates himself fully to them and who, for their sake, is capable of anything, even joining sports teams!” she concluded.

The award was presented by Filipa Amaral, daughter of our founder and first Dean, Professor Diogo Freitas do Amaral. This emotional moment was marked by Professor Jorge Morais Carvalho’s heartfelt speech, which deeply moved the entire community present.