PUBLIC MANAGEMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

Abstract

This digital book, entitled Public Management in Higher Education Institutions, aims to deepen the understanding of recent transformations in the field of Brazilian public administration, with a special focus on federal higher education institutions. Based on a critical and well-founded analysis, it seeks to highlight the main milestones that have shaped a new rationality in public educational management, especially in the context of higher education.

This work was conceived based on the need to understand how the paradigms of New Public Management (NPM) influenced the formulation and implementation of public educational policies aimed at federal universities. The analysis developed here is not restricted to the theoretical plane, but is articulated with concrete data, legal provisions and practical experiences experienced by these institutions in recent decades. The aim is to offer the reader a broad, in-depth and contextualized overview of the changes that have occurred in the administration of federal universities, especially since the 2000s.

Three central pillars of this transformation are discussed throughout the work. The first chapter, entitled "New Public Management (NGP): A new form of management for public services", presents the genesis of NGP, an administrative model inspired by private sector practices that seeks to introduce the concepts of efficiency, effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, accountability for results and performance evaluation into public institutions. It also addresses how these ideas were imported and adapted to the Brazilian context, especially in the context of public higher education.

The second chapter, "Reuni: a new way of managing Brazilian federal universities", is dedicated to the study of the Federal Universities Restructuring and Expansion Program (Reuni), instituted in 2007. This chapter analyzes in detail the objectives, principles and developments of this program, understanding it as a government strategy that expanded access to higher education and, at the same time, demanded new forms of administrative, pedagogical and financial management by universities. Reuni is understood as a decisive milestone in the process of reconfiguring university management, as it directly implied changes in the organizational structure and institutional culture of federal universities.

The third chapter, "The management contract: a new strategy for modernizing public management", explores the legal-political instrument of the management contract, used as a tool to formalize commitments between public managers and control and funding agencies. Its implications for university autonomy, evaluation and accountability mechanisms, and new requirements for strategic planning and performance indicators are addressed. This chapter reflects on the limits and potential of management contracts as tools for accountability and institutional governance in public universities.

The work was structured with the intention of serving as support material for students, researchers, public managers, federal university employees, and others interested in the topics of public administration and educational policies. By providing a critical and well-founded approach, it is hoped that this book will contribute to broadening the debate on the direction of public education management in Brazil, especially at a time when the role of the State, the quality of higher education and the challenges of democratic and efficient management in public institutions are being discussed.

Reading this digital book, therefore, invites reflection on the paths already taken and the possible futures for the management of Brazilian public universities, from a perspective committed to expanding access, ensuring academic quality and strengthening the social function of higher education.