PhD in Management awarded by the University of Southampton [UK] and Master’s and Bachelor's degrees in Economics from the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra. She has been an economics and management teacher (strategic management, institutional assessment, quality management and economic policy) at FEUC since 1986. She is actually vice-rector of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa.

Minister of Education and Science in the 20th Government of the Republic (2015) and member of the Portuguese Parliament (2015-2019). Previously she was Vice-Rector of the University of Coimbra (2011-2015) and was responsible for strategic planning, financial affairs and social action. Management roles, including Administrator (1996-2009) and Pro-Rector (2009-2011) of the University of Coimbra.

Author of several publications, books and various articles in international scientific journals with peer-review (Revista de Administração Pública ; Perspectives: Policy and Practice in Higher Education; Journal of US-China Public Administration). She also has been participating, as a team member and/or as coordinator, in various research and knowledge transfer projects. She is a researcher at the CeBER.