PROFESSIONAL MASTERS AND SOCIAL IMPACT: an examination directed to the self-evaluation of a postgraduate program in a higher education institution
Professional master's degree. Graduate studies. Self-evaluation. Public university. University management.
Since 1965, when the Sucupira Report was issued, there has been raised the possibility of creating educational policies for higher education with a better response to the demands and solutions of immediate problems in both the public and private sectors. By analysing the trajectories that led to the emergence of thestricto sensupost-graduate modality known as Professional Master's degree, this research aims to bring about elements to support the analysis of the correspondence between the academic research of the Professional Master in Institutional Processes Management (MPGPI-UFRN) and the strategic objectives of the Institutional Development Plan (PDI) of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) and how the comprehension of this correspondence is able to provide the improvement of the internal and external evaluation processes of the mentioned postgraduate program. Based on a method proposed by Laurence Bardin (1977) known as content analysis, 96 masters dissertations presented from 2017 to 2020 were analysed in order to raise questions and to understand how the nature of the research offered by the Professional Master in Management of Institutional Processes can encourage the development of innovative management practices and organisational policies at UFRN and at many others segments of brazilian society, grounded on the practical capability that these researches inherently hold in favour of solutions of problems outside the walls of the university. The results found are able to support the current discussion on the influence of institutional self-knowledge in the evaluation processes, aiding institutions to fill relevant gaps when it comes to the use of the results in the field of professional postgraduate studies.