Pós-Graduação na Universidade Federal de Alagoas: a atuação dos coordenadores de cursos stricto sensu

Abstract

At public center of higher education in Brazil, the managers are, mostly, teachers. This also extends as mandatory to course coordinators, because Law 12.677, of June 25, 2012, defined as a requirement for occupying the Course Coordination Commissioned Function (FCC) in federal educational institutions that the servant be a holder of positions in the higher education career or a professor of basic, technical and technological education. However, there are no prerogatives that cover, nor a culture that invests in the training of these professionals to perform the management roles. Considering that an appropriate training of managers can contribute to the development of courses, this research investigated how the coordinators of stricto sensu Graduate Programs at Ufal carry out the management of courses. So it verified in the literature the challenges and practices of managers in universities; it contextualized the stricto sensu post-graduation in the university; it identified the profile of the coordinators of these programs and mapped which tasks they are responsible for. The objectives were achieved through a literature review in Portal de Periódicos Capes, in the documentary analysis of national and local norms, with the application of questionnaires to the then coordinators of the courses and by participant observation, since the researcher was a servant of the pro-rectory responsible for the general coordination of post-graduation courses at Ufal. It was found that, although the literature highlights the lack of training as a problem for teachers who assume management positions in universities, the preparation of teachers to act in post-graduation coordinations is not prioritized by most Brazilian public universities, a reality accompanied by Ufal. Among its own courses or in association or network, the university surveyed has 48 stricto sensu post-graduation programs, which have 61 courses, 44 master's degrees and 17 doctorates. The vast majority are evaluated by Capes with grades between three and four. It was observed that most of the coordinators of these programs did not undergo any specific preparation to assume the position, acquiring experience during their mandate or through the experience of other management positions held in the university. Among the activities listed as typical of the coordination are those established in the internal regulations for the programs, the handling of systems such as the Sistema Integrado de Gestão de Atividades Acadêmicas (Sigaa) and the Plataforma Sucupira, the coordinator is also responsible for the administration of financial resources for the program, among other tasks such as the management of technical, faculty and student interests linked to the program. Based on this list, a guide was prepared for coordinators of Postgraduate Programs (PPGs) at Ufal about the main duties, responsibilities and workflows involved in the execution of the position.