Brazilian Ministry of Education publishes the 2008 assessment of higher education institutions

04 Sep 2009

The index (IGC) goes from 1 to 5, and 3 is the average. In average, the public higher education institutions did better than the private ones.

Since 2006, the IGC (Índice Geral de Cursos, or General Courses Index) is the official evaluation system of Brazilian higher education. It was created by the Ministry of education to assess the quality of the higher education programmes in the undergraduate, master´s and doctor´s level. The index goes from 1 to 5 and 3 is the average. Universities that stay below the average for three consecutive years lose the Ministry´s permission to function.

Evaluation criteria

The IGC is an average of three criteria adopted by he Ministry of Education: the students take an exam to test their knowledge, the Ministry sends observers to the institutions to check the teaching approach and physical structure, and Capes (the Brazilian organization responsible for the graduate courses) evaluation of the master´s and doctor´s programmes.

Results

Almost 2,000 Brazilian higher education institutions were evaluated. In average, the pulic institutions achieved better results than the private ones, as shown on the table below:

Below average (1 or 2) On average (3) Above average (4 or 5)
33 public instituions 89 public institutions  62 public institutions
555 private institutions 795 private institutions  79 private institutions

Here is a list of some universities that achieved 5 in the IGC evaluation and are considered to be among the best higher education institutions in the country:

  • Famerp (Faculdade de Medicina de São José do Rio Preto - Sao Jose do Rio Preto´s Medicine School, in the Sao Paulo State).
  • IBMEC (Instituto Brasileiro de Mercado de Capitais - Brazilian Institute of Capital Market, Rio de Janeiro).
  • UFMG (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais - Minas Gerais Federal University).
  • Unifesp (Universidade Federal de São Paulo - Sao Paulo Federal University).
  • UFRGS (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul - Rio Grande do Sul Federal University).
It is important to mention that two of the most important higher education institutions in Brazil did not participate in the evaluation process. They are USP (Universidade de São Paulo - Sao Paulo University) and Unicamp (Universidade Estadual de Campinas - Campinas State University, in the Sao Paulo State).

 

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