This article addresses student perception of university assessment. It draws on evidence from the second stage of study promoted by the international cooperation between CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) and ICCTI (Institute of International Science and Technology Cooperation). In the study, 476 students from two public universities in Brazil and one university in Portugal were surveyed. The answers to an open-ended questionnaire were categorized according to their meaning, with the support of a computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software program. With this information, it was possible to understand that the students surveyed, in general, acknowledge the importance of the evaluation processes and formulate their own concepts to the subject. To Brazilian students, this assessment seems to be institutional. To Portuguese students, the assessment seems to consider both the institution as well as the learning process. In the Brazilian case, the student culture that repudiates the single assessment by means of one national examination seems to have influenced students’ perceptions of assessment formats. In the Portuguese case, the student culture related to market competitiveness valued the assessment process as a means of regulation. In both cases, the students emphasized the legitimacy of the assessment both for society and education systems (encompassing culture) as well as for the daily life at universities (encompassed culture).
INSTITUTIONAL EVALUATION; LEARNING EVALUATION; UNIVERSITIES; STUDENTS
