Graduate education from graduates’ perspective: a self-evaluation study

Self-assessment has gained centrality in postgraduate assessment policies in Brazil in recent years. The follow-up of graduates, then, has been recommended as a central dimension of the qualification process of postgraduate programs. The centrality of these themes motivated this study, which had as main purpose to analyze the perception of graduates about their formative paths in postgraduate studies. More specifically, we seek to understand how graduates assess (i) courses’ quality; (ii) the importance and relevance of the training carried out; (iii) the impact of the course on the professional trajectory and; (iv) strengths and weaknesses and suggestions for improvement. The study was carried out with graduates from a public federal university located in the southern region of Brazil. The main instrument for data collection was a questionnaire. The study showed, among other results, that the graduates are, for the most part, women (72.1%), white (82.4%), aged up to 35 years (66.9%) and residing in the States from the South region (98.8%). Most of them considered the quality of the PPG as good and excellent. The dimensions that were best evaluated were the “quality of the teaching staff” and the “relationship between advisor/advisee person”. The items less well evaluated were “internationalization” and “innovation”. The qualification of the teaching staff was the potential most mentioned by the graduates, while internationalization was considered the most fragile dimension of the programs. The vast majority of graduates are employed (87.4%), with main activity in public institutions. For 68.6% of the graduates, the course added a lot to their training and professional career. About 63.1% reported that there was a salary increase after completing the course.

Key words:
postgraduate policies; self-evaluation; graduates