The 2017 quadrennial assessment of interdisciplinary professional master’s programs in Brazil: achievements and challenges

The aim is to examine the criteria of the 2017 Quadrennial Assessment of Professional Master’s Programs in the Interdisciplinary Area in Brazil. The content collected in the document research was systematized into three categories: the composition of the assessment criteria; the participation of students in academic and technical productions; and the dedication of professors to the programs. Based on Vergara’s methodological steps, we described the results obtained in each category and interpreted the data in the light of the theoretical-conceptual support. We argue that the assessment criteria sought to recognize the specificity of the activities and research produced in the scope of the interdisciplinary professional master’s programs and brought a greater recognition of the technical production of professors and students of such courses in relation to the academic master’s programs. However, the recognition of such specificity is not complete, considering the imprecision of criteria for the “Social Insertion” item, the difficulties of the students’ access to the most highly-qualified academic production and the dilemmas between the dedication of professors to the programs and other administrative and teaching activities in the educational institutions in which they work, as well as between such dedication and their performance in the market.