No university will progress alone if the others are not also improved. It is necessary to promote a collective movement in favor of the quality of higher education institutions in Brazil. The phrase was said by the former dean of USP, professor Jacques Marcovitch, at the opening of the 3rd Performance Indicators Workshop at São Paulo State Universities - 1st Forum on Academic Performance and International Comparisons, held this Thursday (14) at Unicamp. The events were promoted within the context of the “Performance Indicators at São Paulo State Universities” project, which has funding from the São Paulo State Research Support Foundation (Fapesp) and is coordinated by Marcovitch.
The activities were carried out in different periods. In the morning, the workshop took place, with the participation of researchers who are part of the project, as well as directors and representatives of universities and guests. On this occasion, some data from studies developed within the scope of the project were presented. The rector of Unicamp, Marcelo Knobel, highlighted the importance of the three state universities in São Paulo participating in a collective effort to build indicators that allow for a more precise analysis of the performance of the institutions.
Sandro Valentini, rector of Unesp, stated that universities need to move forward in relation to indicators about which they still do not have much clarity. “We need indicators that show what universities do and what contribution they make to the scientific, technological, social and environmental development of the country”, he argued. In general, directors considered that defining metrics and indicators that more accurately capture the performance of higher education schools is a strategic task.
Firstly, because assessments allow society to be offered, through concrete data, a more realistic view of teaching, research and extension activities. Furthermore, metrics and indicators also constitute a valuable management tool, because they allow the identification of failures and successes, consequently favoring the adoption of corrective or enhancing measures. One of the studies presented demonstrated, for example, the remarkable performance of Agricultural Sciences in Brazil.
The country, which was a food importer in the 1980s, has become a global breadbasket thanks to investments made in science and technology, notably by public universities. Justin Axel-Berg, a researcher at USP, highlighted, however, the need for performance indicators to be constantly debated. “Indicators are contestable, so we need to improve the ways in which we implement bibliometrics”, noted the expert.
Look to 2022
In the afternoon, the forum took place, which was open to public participation and also representatives from federal universities, companies, governments, development agencies, among others. The interventions of the members of the debate tables were oriented towards the 2022 scenario. Professor Jacques Marcovitch highlighted that the discussions provided by the Fapesp Metrics Project take place at a time of profound transformations in the economic, social, demographic, environmental and political spheres, which requires even more attention from researchers on the subject. In the same vein, Marcelo Knobel pointed out that the current moment is marked by debates that are often disqualified, including those referring to the activities carried out by public universities.
According to the dean of Unicamp, negative or false news spreads faster than positive and true news. “We have to work a lot in the area of performance indicators, as this will allow us to also work in the area of communication. We need to dialogue appropriately with society, so that it understands the importance of our work.” Representatives from federal universities also emphasized the need to rethink metrics and performance indicators. Another urgency, they pointed out, is to establish comparison parameters between institutions, both nationally and internationally, as a way of also better gauging the performance of each one.
Professor Jacques Marcovitch invited federal and confessional universities to join the effort to define new performance indicator metrics. Some speeches and texts presented during the forum by representatives of these institutions, according to him, should be included in the second edition of the book “Repensar a Universidade: academic performance and international comparisons”[Access the electronic version of the first edition here], which is scheduled to be launched next August, at Fapesp headquarters. The work will bring together a series of articles that will deal with different aspects related to performance assessment in universities.
Still according to Professor Jacques Marcovitch, the proposal is spreading, thanks to the adhesion of new actors. “We are increasing the movement. This is very positive, because as I said, state universities in São Paulo will not be able to improve on their own. For advancement to be real and sustainable, development must be collective. The entire system needs to progress”, he reinforced.
