Desafios à institucionalização da internacionalização na Universidade de Brasília

Abstract

This dissertation, the final paper of the Professional Master's Course in Educational Management, sought to discuss the following question: how were internationalization policies, processes and actions developed and implemented at Universidade de Brasília (UnB) from 2013 to 2016? The general objective of this research was to analyze the internationalization processes within the UnB, as well as the contexts in which they occur. In addition, the specific objectives were: a) to draw a panorama of Brazilian higher education in the face of a global crisis and analyze the position of UnB in this scenario; B) to analyze the activities of the International Relations Office, the Deans of Teaching and Graduation, Research and Postgraduate and Extension in the processes of internationalization in UnB; C) to show the relevance of internationalization in the performance evaluations of UnB's workers. To reach the results, at first, a bibliographical review of the Brazilian academic production in the area of internationalization was carried out. Afterwards, the contextualization of the internationalization process was presented, addressing the following aspects: globalization, challenges and possibilities in the university, the university in Brazil, internationalization in Brazil and characterization of the University of Brasilia. The methodology used was the documentary analysis of two management documents of the Institution: the Institutional Development Plan 2014 – 2017 and the Self Evaluation Report 2015; and semi-structured interviews with four managers of the institution. These data were organized into six categories: a) Internationalization Policies at UnB; b) Workers x Internationalization; c) Privileged Countries in Internationalization Activities; d) Privileged Knowledge Areas in Internationalization Activities; e) Challenges of Internationalization in UnB; f) Possibilities of Internationalization in UnB. The results obtained showed that: a) there is no internationalization policy in the University of Brasília; b) the technical servers do not participate of the processes; c) there is a prevalence of traditional cooperation activities (with countries in Europe and the United States); d) there are no privileged areas of knowledge in internationalization activities; e) UnB's challenges in internationalization are centered on language issues, infrastructure and rankings; F) and that the possibilities of internationalization are in the strengths of the Institution, such as the quality of its teachers and workers and the geographical location. In addition, it was proposed that internationalization activities could be considered in the workers performance evaluations.