Acreditação de doutoramentos: da avaliação da qualidade à qualidade da avaliação

Abstract

The educational quality, in a global perspective, involves the implementation of quality management systems. In Portugal, the A3ES (Evaluation and Accredited Agency for Higher Education Institutions) is in charge of all the necessary processes related to evaluation and accreditation. In this work we will be analyzing the evaluation/accreditation reports of the PhDs, as a reflex of a closer look on quality and its sustainability, as far as the higher education institutions are concerned. In compliance, we will be solely analyzing the educational dimension in this cycle of studies, within public universities. The methodological procedures to collect data were determined by defining the terms of the research, inclusion criteria and qualitative analysis in what concerns the disclosure and preliminary assessment of the evaluation/accreditation reports carried out in 2011 and 2012. From what the analysis has shown, the requisites necessary to the accreditation are patent. Nevertheless, in most reports, one cannot identify improvement suggestions, which could contribute to an effective advance of the quality of teaching/education. Thus, this reveals in some way, the standardization, both in form and content, of the reports of evaluation/accreditation previously referred.