Studies show that public investment in the State University of Campinas (Unicamp) returns multiplied to society. One of the most tangible examples to prove the premise is in startups created from projects developed at the institution.
In 2019, the total impact on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Unicamp's daughter companies was 3,07 times the total resources from the State of São Paulo Treasury used by the university in that year alone. And the companies' revenue was R$7,9 billion, bringing an impact of R$7,4 billion to the country's GDP, of which 91,7% (R$6,8 billion) was in the State of São Paulo. In aggregate terms, the study showed that each R$1 of revenue from these companies generates R$0,94 of wealth for the country and every ten direct jobs in Unicamp's daughter companies result in 19 jobs in Brazil.
At the Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp), the mapping of graduates from health courses found a relevant presence of higher education professionals distributed throughout the State of São Paulo, contributing to a better quality of life for the population of São Paulo.
At the University of São Paulo (USP), a series of important actions on diversity and inclusion are also being taken as a response to society's demands. However, when it comes to access, permanence and career progression for women, at the Faculty of Law of Largo de São Francisco, for example, of the 130 professors, only 23 are women.
The three reported cases, which exemplify internal evaluation models adopted in universities in São Paulo, are described in the book Repensar a Universidade III: Saberes e Practices, launched last Thursday (26/10) during the 5th Forum “Academic performance and international comparisons ”, carried out at FAPESP. This is the third work produced within the scope of the Metrics Project, an initiative coordinated by former USP dean Jacques Marcovitch and one of its main objectives is to seek comprehensive ways of measuring the impact generated by universities.
This is the third book in a series “dedicated to university governance”, summarized Marcovitch. The publication’s target audience is those responsible for academic institutions – deans, pro-rectors, directors of departments and units, among others – and the objective is to “offer a reading of the challenges presented to universities in an environment of transformation and analyze the solutions to face them”, he stated.
These “challenges” are divided into thematic areas, from the socioeconomic impact of universities to their responsible planning and evaluation, including inclusive actions, governance, open science and dialogues with the environment. There are, in total, 16 chapters written by more than 40 experts.
“Rethinking a university is not trivial. It involves revisiting the fundamentals of academic management and identifying which aspects require improvement. An institution must be rethought, first of all, with respect. It is necessary to keep in mind that many of its practices were born from the experience of good managers in tune with the resources available at the time they were started. Therefore, all our work is based on the principle of curating constructed knowledge and updating it”, said Marcovitch in the book’s introduction.
"The project represents a substantial innovation in the evaluation of research results and performance of universities, including their multiple responsibilities. Universities and researchers deserve recognition from FAPESP because they gave shape and density to a pioneering academic content project", he stated during the event Marco Antonio Zago, president of FAPESP, who is also a former dean of USP and signed the presentation of the work.
Also present at the launch of the book, the State Secretary for Science, Technology and Innovation of the State of São Paulo, Vahan Agopyan, highlighted in his speech that the work discusses “fundamental topics” for the academic world. “In this third volume, we are already seeing the socioeconomic impact on universities, inclusion and governance. This expansion transformed this project into an important initiative for academia”, said Agopyan, who is also a former dean of USP.
Science science, research research
The Metrics Project proposes that the evaluation of universities goes beyond quantitative indices of publications and citations – international university rankings – and aims at something more comprehensive, represented by a set of indicators that consider not only research, teaching, extension and culture, but, above all, the beneficial impact of universities on society.
In this way, the community of researchers created within the scope of Métricas is developing methodologies, indicators and reflections that, based on data management, look inside universities, identifying strengths or points that need to be improved and outlining priorities.
"The Metrics Project emerged at a time when rankings were multiplying, selecting some indicators to rank universities. But they transformed the evaluation and comparison of universities into a mechanical thing. It is a kind of Olympics for universities. This project, which is started linked to the council of rectors, it was born collective, shared, with the purpose of being an instrument of management and not of competition. Within it, the dispute and overcoming of competitors were replaced by the understanding of the meanings of the different indicators and how each one of them contributes to the execution. It has become a planning and management instrument", says Zago.
The Metrics Project does not advocate that rankings should be disregarded, quite the opposite, as, according to Marcovitch, they are good self-comparison tools. The three state universities in São Paulo, in fact, are gaining prominence in these rankings. Recently, USP, Unicamp and Unesp appeared among the top ten in the QS ranking of the best universities in Latin America and the Caribbean [QS University Ranking Latin America & The Caribbean].
Marcovitch said, during the book launch event, that the project coordination received a question from the Federal Court of Auditors about why the three state universities in São Paulo were among the best in the country and in Latin America among international evaluation rankings. and university performance.
"Our response was equally compact, we reproduced the seven parameters that guide our work: 1) management autonomy and financial predictability of universities; 2) specific areas of international excellence with collaborations between universities; 3) strong and lasting links with international universities, companies and organizations in society; 4) FAPESP as a source of competitive financing and predictable revenue; 5) environment that values higher education and research, expanding connections; 6) purpose of advancing collaborations at the frontiers of knowledge; and 7) management of data and institutional research to improve academic performance", concluded Marcovitch.
The following co-authors of the book also participated in the event: Raiane Assumpção (Unifesp), Dulce Helena S. Silva (Unesp), Mariano F. Laplane (Unicamp), Giovanna de Moura Rocha Lima (Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands), Luciana Francisco Fleuri (Unesp), Jéxio Hernani B. Gutierre (Unesp), Peter A. Schulz (Unicamp), Marisa Masumi Beppu (Unicamp), Nina Ranieri (USP), Luiz Nunes de Oliveira (USP), Sávio M. Cavalcante (Unicamp), Ana Paula Palazi (Unicamp), Ney Lemke (Unesp), Fátima Nunes (USP), Milena P. Serafim (Unicamp) and Sérgio Salles-Filho (Unicamp).
Read the full article published on the Agência Fapesp website.
