ABSTRACT
Students’ perceptions of quality assessment in higher education and aspects of the process are a glaring gap in the literature. Through a comparative study, we analysed the perception of students from two public universities, one in Portugal and one in Brazil, on these evaluative practices. The study involved 300 university students (50% from Portugal; 50% from Brazil). The results reveal that the students from both contexts know the evaluated quality indicators and the institutions responsible for the evaluation process in their countries (Agência de Avaliação e Acreditação do Ensino Superior — A3ES in Portugal; Sistema Nacional de Avaliação da Educação Superior/ Ministério de Educação e Cultura — SINAES/MEC in Brazil). On the other hand, 89.3% of the students from Portugal and 86.7% of the students from Brazil report that they have no knowledge about this process. Moreover, a considerable part of the participants (75.3% Portuguese, 59.3% Brazilians) report not having participated in this process, showing the two sides of the same coin. The results are discussed, and some considerations are presented.
Keywords:
Student Perceptions; Quality Assessment; Higher Education; Comparative Case Study