Career and institutional context in Brazil's higher education system

Abstract

This work studies the development of the relationship between academic title and institutional career between 1992 and 2003, in Brazil's higher education institutions, based on data collected in two surveys that are representative of the academic profession in Brazil. Results obtained were surprising because they point to an increasing disorganization of career structure in Brazilian higher education institutions and a decrease in the association between title and career. The study also presents a multivariate analysis exercise to see which dimensions are relevant to explain the rise of professors to distinct career levels. Results corroborate the hypothesis that the career offered by Brazilian higher education institutions is gradually losing its ability to discriminate and reward academic performance, since the main reference on which it has been built - academic title - tended to homogenize in the last decade.