INSTITUTIONAL SELF-EVALUATION: PROPOSITIONS AND EVALUATIVE EVIDENCE FOR THE GRADUATE PROGRAMS AT FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF GOIÁS

Abstract In the last decades, the rapid growth of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) has led to the development of several methods for their evaluation, culminating in the creation of the SINAES Law in 2004. However, postgraduate education is still inadequately covered in this evaluation process. To minimize this gap, this study proposed the creation of an exclusive evaluative instrument for postgraduate education at the Federal University of Goiás (UFG). The aim is to identify the decisive factors for the institution's development and its graduate programs from the students' perspective. This study is important because it contributes to the development of evaluation methods for postgraduate education in higher education institutions and for future researchers. The methodology consists of bibliographic and documentary analysis based on scientific texts and relevant legislation, as well as semi-structured interview techniques, case studies, and statistical inference. Based on the results, points that require the most improvement were identified, such as teaching and evaluation methodologies, the pedagogical project, program planning, as well as general infrastructure. In addition, the lack of actions to encourage scientific, technical, artistic, and extension production was also found.