 The Escola Superior de Artes e Design de Caldas da Rainha (ESAD.CR, Upper School of Arts and Design), founded in 1990, is a division of the Instituto Politécnico de Leiria (IPL, Polytechnic Institute of Leiria). ESAD.CR offers courses in plastic arts, ambient design, industrial design, ceramic and glass design, graphic and multimedia design, product design, typographic design, theatre, sound, image, and cultural management. Former institutions of higher learning in Caldas include a campus of the Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa (UAL, Autonomous University of Lisbon) and a branch of the Escola Superior de Biotecnologia (ESB, Upper School of Biotechnology) of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa (UCP, Catholic University of Portugal) from 1999 to 2011.
