Promoting students' Critical Thinking (CT) in Higher Education Institutions (HEI) has been an essential and challenging goal in the 21 st century. This exploratory research study attempted to characterize how CT is being fostered in Portuguese HEI. Semi-structured interviews were carried-out with 5 university teachers from different domains, focusing several topics: CT notion, CT aims, CT approach, interventions, teaching strategies, learning materials, assessment methods, challenges and barriers. Results highlighted the undervalue of CT dispositions by university teachers, the lack of clarity regarding the design principles and criteria behind effective CT instruction and assessment, and the need to change institutional culture and conditions towards the support of CT educational practicesthis will also enable the long-term integration of CT across the curricula and the transferability of skills and dispositions to other contexts. In general, teachers agreed on the importance to be explicit and clear in their CT teaching practice, and on the use of authentic situations, dialogue and active learning strategies for the effective development of students' CT.We understand critical thinking to be purposeful, self-regulatory judgment which results in interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and inference, as well as explanation of the evidential, conceptual, methodological, criteriological, or contextual considerations upon which that judgment is based. CT is essential as a tool of inquiry. As such, CT is a liberating force in education and a powerful resource in one's personal and civic life. While not synonymous with good thinking, CT is a pervasive and self-rectifying human phenomenon [3, p. 2].