Unicamp's positioning in the different performance assessment rankings, both national and international, is the result of activities carried out by the institution as a whole and not a goal to be achieved. The statement was made this Wednesday (8) by the Vice-Rector of University Development, professor Marisa Beppu, during participation in the workshop promoted by the Performance Indicators at São Paulo State Universities project, which has funding from the State Research Support Foundation of São Paulo (Fapesp). The event was held at the Institute of Theoretical Physics (IFT) at Unesp, in São Paulo.
According to Marisa Beppu, the University has several mechanisms that allow it to diagnose the quality of its activities, define paths to follow and build a vision of the future. Among the available tools are Strategic Planning (Planes), Institutional Assessment and Performance Assessment of Teachers and Researchers. “One of the challenges we have is continually discussing whether the metrics we use are adequate and whether they are adequately measuring what we intend,” she said.
In this sense, the rector of Unesp, professor Sandro Roberto Valentini, highlighted that performance evaluations must consider the asymmetries that exist between university units and bodies. He noted that it is not possible to use the same metric to analyze a college with 70 years of activity and another with only five years. The tendency, he considered, is that the first is much more consolidated in institutional and scientific terms than the second.
In his speech, Valentini suggested the incorporation of social impact assessment indicators in the variables measured by the rankings. The rector of Unicamp, Marcelo Knobel, agreed with his colleague, adding that there are different characteristics between faculties and institutes, such as greater or lesser proximity to society or the level of internationalization. “These inequalities must be taken into account when evaluating,” he declared. For the president of the Fapesp Superior Council, José Goldemberg, the metrics “need to consider the differences and objectives of the units to be evaluated”.
Book and cooperations
During the workshop, the former dean of USP and coordinator of the Performance Indicators at São Paulo State Universities project, Jacques Marcovitch, promoted the launch of the book “Rethinking the University: academic performance and international comparisons”, of which he is the organizer. The work brings together articles by professors and researchers from the three state universities of São Paulo, who address the issue of performance assessment from different aspects. The publication is available both in print and electronics.
According to Marcovitch, the book is based on the idea shared by the three state universities in São Paulo of building a vision of the future. “Rethinking the university, as stated in the title of the book, means defending its values and reinforcing its commitment to the quality of teaching, research and extension. At the same time, it means renewing its ties with society, which is undergoing rapid transformation. These are movements that presuppose both a return, to review and correct, and advancement, to conquer innovative positions”, he pointed out.
One of the book's authors, Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz, scientific director of Fapesp, used his speech to demystify some “certainties” about cooperation between universities and companies in Brazil. According to him, the relationship between Unicamp and USP – data on Unesp were not available – and the corporate segment, for example, is quite intense, whether in terms of investment or the joint production of scientific articles. “There is a kind of mantra repeated over and over that the partnership between Brazilian companies and universities is meaningless. It turns out that the numbers show a very different picture of this. In certain cases, this interaction is as or more significant than in institutions such as MIT, the University of California at Berkeley and the University of California at Davis”, he maintained.
The article signed by Brito brings comparative tables that contest the idea that universities and companies do not act together. “Knowing this type of indicator will certainly contribute to creating better strategies for the Brazilian science and technology system. Using it in rankings can encourage the best Brazilian universities to improve their registration and control systems to know and correctly report values. The central idea is: first to know; then, know to change; and, ultimately, change to improve.”
