O exercício da avaliaçao nas universidades públicas portuguesas

Abstract

The assesment of the Portuguese public Universities as we understood it, was stablished not only for the Institutions to account for their actions before Society, but also for the Government to control the Autonomy of the Universities. The Portuguese evaluation model, is based on the following principles: the drawing up of contracts between the Government, the Universities and the Foundation of the Portuguese Universities; participation of students, teachers and staff in the evaluation process; independence of the External Evaluation Committees; the same committee wil assess all similarly named degrees in all Portuguese Universities. The main aims of the Evaluation System are: to check if the goalsappointed have been achieved, to identify the strengths and the weaknesses and to set strategies to correct any problems. Evaluation has identified several handicaps such as: a certain ambiguity as far as the goals are concerned; Insufficient criteria and high rates of failure in the first two years. Evaluation has restated that quality develops in appealing environments for the teaching staff and the students and through a criterion recruiment of teachers aiming at building teams.