Postgraduate evaluation policy

perceptions of postgraduate program coordinators at a brazilian public university

Abstract

The Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) is the Brazilian agency responsible for guidelines and evaluation of graduate programs. The evaluation policy emphasizes the competitiveness and performance of institutions and researchers, as it conditions financial resources for obtained results. Professors and teaching institutions assume responsibility for the success or failure of their programs. Considering the importance of program coordinators in implementing the graduate evaluation policy, this article analyzes the dynamic and the practices and strategies adopted by these agents at the Federal University of Ouro Preto (UFOP). Data come from interviews with five program coordinators in five areas: 1- Human Sciences, Letters and Arts; 2 - Exact and Earth Sciences; 3 – Engineering; 4 – Life Sciences and 5 – Applied Social Sciences. The interviews covered three dimensions: (1) Perceptions of Graduate Studies in Brazil; (2) Perceptions of Graduate Studies at UFOP and (3) Perceptions of Graduate Studies in its Program and strategies for action. The analysis reinforces the thesis that there is a process of reconfiguring public higher education. The interviews reveal that conditioning financing to obtain results aggravates competition, the commodification of knowledge, and the precariousness of teaching, bringing illness to the subjects involved. The recessive fiscal policy has reinforced the primacy of the budget over the social function of postgraduate studies and the University.