Analysis of the technical efficiency of undergraduate courses at a public university in the Brazilian Amazon
Institutional Evaluation. University education. Assessor State. Data Envelopment Analysis
The internal Institutional evaluation of Higher Education Institutions, inserted in the context of SINAES, in addition to certification, is carried out with the purpose of improving, through self-knowledge, the quality of higher education and the expansion of its offer. As a complement to the self-assessment process presented by the National Institute of Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira-INEP, the research challenge proposed here is to measure the technical efficiency of undergraduate courses at the Federal University of Western Pará-UFOPA, through Data Envelopment Analysis, better known as Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), considering variables of inputs (investments) and product (results) provided and generated, respectively, for and by the courses. The DEA methodology was applied to evaluate 20 undergraduate courses offered at UFOPA headquarters, with institutional data for the year 2017, using 3 input variables (resources) and 3 output variables (products). There was a more in-depth discussion on four fundamental points, namely: the role of the so-called “Assessing State” from which public policies that guide the evaluation process of higher education in Brazil start; the influence of Neoliberalism on the structure and context of Brazilian education; the perspective of internal evaluation of undergraduate courses; and the Data Envelopment Analysis methodology as a technique capable of evaluating the performance of undergraduate courses.