Evaluation perception: a portrait of public management in a higher education institution

Abstract

University evaluation has been defended as a necessary tool to promote institutional competence and to improve teaching, research, extension programs and institutional management. In order to examine the institutional management process at the Federal University of Santa Maria (Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, UFSM, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil), this article presents the results of a research that identified the factors that, as perceived by 263 UFSM professors, interfere in the continuity and improvement of the institutional evaluation process. Data was collected in questionnaires and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical techniques. Between 79.9% and 95.7% of the studied factors either facilitate or obstruct the evaluation process, the following standing out with over 70%: “being conscious of the importance of evaluation”; “clear establishment of the indicating criteria that will be used in the evaluation”; “establishment and disclosure of the institution’s policies”; and the “existence of an internal evaluation commission”. To summarize, despite the exploratory nature of the study, the results revealed an adequate picture of UFSM’s evaluation process.