Sistema ARCU-SUL: qualidade e regulação na confluência das políticas nacionais e regional

Abstract

The work has as object the System of Regional Accreditation of University Courses of Mercosur (ARCU-SUL). The research problem was summarized in the following question: what are the limits and potentialities of the regional quality assessment policy, configured in the ARCU-SUL System, for the construction of a securities recognition model? Thus, the objective of the research is to analyze the ARCU-SUL, with a view to revealing the limits and potentialities of the regional evaluation policy for the construction of a securities recognition model. As specific objectives were listed: understanding the role of evaluation and accreditation in education policies and specifically in the Mercosur Education Sector; analyzing the implementation of the first cycle of ARCU-SUL; investigating the actions of the Mercosur Educational Sector to articulate the regional accreditation with recognition of titles in the Mercosur countries. The study consists of an evaluation of educational policy, based on the concepts of authors James Palumbo and Janete Lins Azevedo and was carried out through bibliographical research and documentary research. From the perspective of Roger Dale on the constitution of regional models of education, the analysis of qualitative content was carried out considering the indices of accreditation, regional quality and regulation. The data of the first cycle evidenced the complexity of the implementation of ARCU-SUL, which presented tensions and contradictions. The data of the first cycle evidenced the complexity of the implementation of ARCU-SUL, which presented tensions and contradictions. There are limits in regional policy that compromise its constitution as a system, since the Network of National Accreditation Agencies founded difficulties in rationalizing and organizing the various constituent elements that should operate in synergy. However, potentialities were also verified, exemplified in the number of courses accredited in the various degrees and in the adhesion of the countries of the region. About the quality of the courses, the analysis of the accreditation resolutions exposed variations in the justifications of the national agencies, ranging from the priority in the formal dimension to the political dimension. Thus, it is not possible to assure that the first cycle resulted in a unique quality standard of the courses of the region, that is, the regional quality was referenced by diverse conceptions. This occured because the ARCU-SUL is built with the participation of the Mercosur countries, through the internal structures of nation-states, which in turn do not receive evaluative agendas in the same way and influence changes in regional policy. However, the avaliation potential to define the quality influenced the regulation of country systems. Thereby, ARCU-SUL constitutes a point of convergence of national policies with regional policy and points out as an efficient induction strategy. Therewith, it was possible to prove the thesis defended in the research since, with the System, the regional policy aimed, from the potential of the evaluation in determining quality in higher education, inducing the adoption of mechanisms for the automatic recognition of titles in Mercosur countries. The results showed that, by including higher education as a central issue for the consolidation of the economic bloc, the regionalization process seeks to use accreditation as a tool to control diplomas in national systems. Therefore, Mercosur's policy highlighted the regulatory perspective of evaluation.