In this article, the context of the national evaluation is addressed, beginning with the great expansion of Brazilian higher education institutions, which demanded an extension and improvement of the evaluation processes. Afterwards approaches the successive evaluation programs proposed by the higher education regulatory agencies and the intense debate that they have generated with different social actors involved, culminating in the proposal of the Law on the National System for the Evaluation of Higher Education (SINAES). As a result of the process, the case of UFRGS is discussed, to demonstrate the necessary adaptations in a University, in which the evaluation went through several phases, from initial resistance, to adhesion and consolidation. We analyze the consequences of the external evaluation requirements and the context of the internal evaluation to the UFRGS, verifying the repercussions and own characteristics that the institutional evaluation in this University assumed.
Key words: External evaluation; SINAES; Evaluation programs