Acompanhamento de egressos: estudo de caso em um programa de pós-graduação na UFSM

Abstract

One of the aims of universities is to employ people who are qualified to work in the profession, and to do this it is necessary to know what the graduates are doing. The aim of this research is to contribute to improving the follow-up of graduates from the Graduate Program in Civil Engineering (PPGEC) at the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM) by establishing a proposal to control information on graduates in a way that will help to promote the program's evaluation by CAPES. The research has a qualitative/quantitative approach as a case study and uses bibliographical and documentary research procedures to support the reality studied. For the study, data was collected on the work of the graduates through their CVs, the internet and social networks. The results of the research are presented in three topics, with the program coordinator reporting that there is no structured way of follow-up its graduates, which makes it difficult to compile data and implement relationship actions. In turn, UFSM does not have an institutional program for follow-up graduates, which makes it difficult for the program to implement on its own. With an average of 23.04 graduates/year, 68.57% (48) PhD graduates are also Master's graduates. Focusing the research on the CAPES evaluation criteria, the performance of graduates in relation to the training they received, 91.15% (546 graduates) have a professional career in the area of training they received on the course. Only 6.35% of graduates (38) do not work in the field. With the help of the PDCA Cycle, actions to improve the implementation and maintenance of graduate follow-up were established and an instrument for collecting graduate data was proposed. The results of the survey show that the program coordinators are interested in following up with graduates. However, there is a fear that the graduates will not return to the program and this corroborates the fact that the survey found that the graduates' Lattes CVs are not up to date. Finally, the work contributes to the creation of a consistent database and delivers as a product a model for follow-up graduates and a data collection tool. The study is in line with the policy of follow-up graduates established by the National Higher Education Evaluation System (Sinaes), and is a necessary demand for postgraduate programs. In turn, it is also a commitment by universities to society and a necessity given the Postgraduate Evaluation System.