This work analyses the assessment policy for higher education formulated by the Ministry of Education and Culture - MEC - in the Paulo Renato Sousa's term, with especial reference to the National Examination of Courses. The following policy aspects are treated in this article: 1. principles, aims, and methodological features of the Cardoso government assessment policy; 2. the context of the policy's formulation and implementation, and the role played by it in brasilian higher education system; 3. the assessment as the MEC's core policy instrument of co-ordination and controlling; and 4.strategic relations between this policy and the logic of state regulation.
EDUCATION POLICIES; ASSESSMENT; PUBLIC POLICIES; HIGHER EDUCATION
