Abstract
In 1996, the Brazilian Ministry of Education introduced a National Assessment of Courses for Brazilian higher education. The assessment consisted of a test applied to all students graduating from specific course programs in the country. The objective of the test was to provide information to the public on the quality of higher education courses, helping the students and their families to choose where to study, and to provide the Ministry of Education with information that could be used in the accreditation and reaccredidation of higher education institutions. The exam generated an intensive process of discussions and consultations among academics about the contents and standards of the different careers, which supposedly helped to improve the quality of Brazilian higher education throughout. While the exam faced strong opposition from student associations, teachers’ unions and many higher education institutions, it was received with support in public opinion and in the press. The results became widely used by students in their choice of institutions and by institutions themselves, particularly in the private sector, which either publicized their results or tried to improve them.
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- 1.
The official reports of ENC and ENADE are available for consultation at the site of the Institute for Education Research from the Brazilian Ministry of Education, INEP, at http://www.inep.gov.br.
- 2.
- 3.
This is the net rate. In 2005, according to the National Household Survey from the Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics (IBGE), there were 5.183 million students in higher education in Brazil, 6% of which were in advanced, graduate education. Of those, only 53% were in the expected age cohort of 18–24. The gross rate of enrollment, comparing all students irrespective of age with the corresponding cohort, was 21.2%, still a very low figure compared with other countries in the region.
- 4.
By the end of 2003, the Brazilian government issued a Decree that forbade the creation of new university centers, and set a time limit for their transformation into universities or reversion to non-autonomous status (Brasil Presidência da República 2003).
- 5.
For a discussion of this program, see Amaral and Polidori (1999).
- 6.
In 2004, this system was replaced by a new one, the National System for Assessment of Higher Education (SINAES). For an official description, see http://www.inep.gov.br/superior/sinaes/.
- 7.
Federal law 9131/95.
- 8.
See, for a detailed description, INEP (2002).
- 9.
The Center for Studies of Public Opinion of the University of Campinas was commissioned to prepare these reports, which were not confidential, but were not widely distributed. See Meneguello et al. (2002).
- 10.
- 11.
Until 2000, the grades were distributed according to fixed percentages – 12, 18, 40, 18 and 12%, for A, B, C, D, E. Since 2001, the normal distribution was used, with courses above one standard from the mean receiving an A, and those one standard deviation below receiving an E.
- 12.
In Brazil, it is possible for the Executive branch to create laws through provisional acts (“Medidas Provisórias”) which are valid immediately, but can be changed or rejected by Congress within a short limit of time. This is supposed to be used only on extraordinary situations, but, in practice, it is used whenever the government wants to avoid the lengthy procedures of sending ordinary bills to be discussed in Congress.
- 13.
The information available both at the site of INEP and in microdata includes now, among others, data on basic education by school (Prova Brasil), the National Exam for Secondary Education (ENEM), the basic and higher education censuses, and ENADE.
- 14.
Thus, in a hypothetical case, if the grades for entering and concluding students are 80 and 100, the added value would be 20, the combined value of these two components would be 80*.15 + 100*.6 = 72; if the grades were 50 and 100, the added value would be 50, but the combined value would be 60.7. So, in two courses with the same level of achievement for the graduating students, the one which added less to their previous background would have a higher final mark.
- 15.
Comisión Nacional de Evaluación y Acreditación Universitaria (CONEAU).
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Acknowledgments
I am indebted to Gilda Portugal, Maria Helena Guimarães Castro, and, particularly, to Jocimar Archangelo, for the wealth of insight and information on the National Assessment of Courses. I am also grateful to Cláudio de Moura Castro, Jacques Schwartzman, and Maria Helena Magalhães Castro for detailed comments and criticisms on the first draft of this chapter.
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Schwartzman, S. (2010). The National Assessment of Courses in Brazil. In: Dill, D., Beerkens, M. (eds) Public Policy for Academic Quality. Higher Education Dynamics, vol 30. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3754-1_15
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