Políticas Públicas de Avaliação da Educação Superior no Brasil e em Portugal: uma abordagem comparativa de práticas e sentidos

Abstract

The Public Policies for Evaluation of Higher Education have been developed, since the 80’s, in conjunction with the modernization movement of the State which occurred during that period. By restricting its functions to centrality and regulation, the State has changed its relations with Higher Education, which gave rise to the concept of Appraiser State. The production of evaluation indicators has intensified over the years, impacting higher education and the social function of the university. In order to analyze how come the public policies of evaluation of higher education are concretized in public universities from Brazil and Portugal when local actors take ownership of them, we initially resort to both documentary and secondary sources analysis, seeking to understand the political and institutional plan. We highlight the Higher Education Evaluation Systems of the countries mentioned, pointing out similarities and differences between their political-normative structures and the models adopted during the period of this study. Then, in order to analyze the practices and meanings of the local actions, we adopted a comprehensive approach which allowed us to observe the interaction of local actors and the subjectivities present in the process of appropriation and concretization of these public policies. This paper was structured in three parts: Theoretical framework, Methodology and Results Presentation. The conclusions of this study allowed us to capture different meanings attributed to public policies of evaluation of higher education in the countries in mention, as the local actors take ownership of them, highlighting their similarities and differences.