abstract
- The main objective of this study is to understand what are the skills and competences expected from graduates in a context of disadvantaged re-gions. The paper is based on a qualitative case study from Trás-os-Montes sub-region (in Portugal). This region is an example of a disadvantaged region, which is building a strong based knowledge transfer system in order to empha-ses the interaction between region and the Higher Education Institution (and re-search) collaboratively. Building institutional capacity could be a development tool to these less favoured regions to improve their economical processes. The results identify the critical skills for different sectors of activity and identify the main expectations of the students from two different areas (Management and computer science).