Acompanhamento de egressos como instrumento de gestão: uma proposta de inovação nas políticas acadêmicas da Universidade Federal do Triângulo Mineiro

Abstract

The Brazilian Higher Education is permanently evaluated in order to ensure improvements in the quality of education offered to the population. The Anísio Teixeira National Institute for Educational Studies and Research (INEP) is responsible for evaluating higher education institutions, courses and students; for this, it makes use of the National Higher Education Evaluation System (SINAES). The dimensions assessed in this system include, among others, policies for student support, with graduates follow-up being one of the main aspects observed in this item. This research aims to propose a management instrument for following up graduates from UFTM. Such instrument represents an innovation in the process of responding to institutional evaluation, considering that the University still lacks mechanisms to meet this need. The development of the instrument relied on the evaluation by a committee of judges. Data collection was carried out according to the convenience sampling method, with the application of an online questionnaire to a group of former UFTM students from the Medicine major. Data were analyzed according to the frequency distribution of the responses in order to present an overview of the results. In addition, data specifically related to institutional evaluation criteria were submitted to the statistical procedures Pearson´s chi-square test and analysis of variance - ANOVA, aiming to make comparisons between the perceptions of three groups of graduates categorized by date of course completion. Results suggest that the management instrument meets the evaluation criteria established by INEP and is capable of maintaining systematic updating of information about graduates. The instrument also makes possible to carry out studies comparing students´ performance in the labor market with the training and preparation they received at the Higher Education Institution. Additionally, it provides helpful information for the process of improving teaching, research and outreach activities offered by UFTM.