Programas de Pós-Graduação na UFJF: consolidação e acompanhamento

Abstract

The present dissertation, developed at the Professional Master‟s Degree in Management and Assessment of Public Education of the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF), discusses the consolidation of graduate programs at UFJF. The research was developed from the following guiding question: How can the Secretariat of Graduate Programs and Academic Research (PROPP, in Portuguese) contribute to the management of graduate programs at UFJF aiming at consolidating such courses and, therefore, achieving higher grades by CAPES, especially those awarded grade 3? Thus, our goal if to define actions and strategies to be conducted, by PROPP so that the graduate programs at UFJF may reach a higher degree of consolidation as well as more expressive assessment by CAPES. The study begins with concepts and notions on (a) the history of graduate programs in Brazil, especially from the perspective of the law CFE nº. 977 (1965) as well as authors such as Santos (2003), Cury (2004) and Guimarães (2007); (b) of their development and consolidation within the country, from the perspective of Gatti et al. (2003); Bianchetti and Machado (2007) and Saviani (2010); and (c) their aspects of work and purpose, mostly from the understanding of Santos and Azevedo (2009); Massi and Giordan (2017) and Gehlen and Chaves (2017), to reflect upon the institutional relevance of graduate programs at UFJF, from a point of view of follow-up and strengthening. The research methodology adopted was the case study, associated to a qualitative approach which incorporated instruments applied to representative of a variety of fields within graduate schools. That is: (a) semi structured interviews with the head of the Secretariat of Graduate Programs and Academic Research (PROPP, in Portuguese); with three head coordinators of graduate programs at UFJF, and with the head of the National Association of Graduate Students at the university; and (b) surveys with the head coordinators and student representatives of graduate programs at UFJF. It is possible top highlight, from the results obtained, that there are actions and strategies at PROPP to contribute to the consolidation of graduate programs at UFJF, but several of the limitations are associated to a lack of institutionalization of the processes. As a product of this work, the present dissertation brings an Education Plan of Action regarding the potential of the level of excellence of graduate programs at UFJF. In spite of actions and strategies based on the bases of two main dimensions: that of a graduate institutionalization plan; and the awareness of the academic community regarding the need to occupy spaces with the segment.