Ações de (auto)avaliação e seus efeitos para melhoria da qualidade no ensino superior: um estudo de caso

Quality assurance has received much attention in recent years, mainly due to internal and external pressures related to the progressive massification of higher education and the need to align quantitative growth of frequencies with international quality standards. The adoption of self-evaluation practices resulted from an external imposition on Higher Education Institutions aiming to institute internal self-regulation dynamics and to legitimize external control procedures leading to the accreditation of courses and institutions. This paper aims to present and discuss self-assessment actions and their effects at a professional and social level within a basic unit of Universidade Católica de Moçambique (Catholic University of Mozambique). In methodological terms, the case study perspective is adopted and the non-participant observation and the content analysis of documents produced within this process are used. We conclude that self- assessment, although marked by ambiguous and weakly articulated dimensions, led to changes and improvements during and after the practice of self-evaluation.