Internationalization on Focus: Analysis of the Actions Developed by UFSC (2015–2019)

Abstract

Universities are characterized as a source of information, generation, and dissemination of knowledge through the multiplicity of worldviews and philosophical, scientific, and political positions. In this context, the process of internationalization of these institutions is necessary for them to be in line with the different changes and globalization. This is an explanatory-descriptive qualitative piece of research that evaluated Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) internationalization actions in the period 2015–2019 through the analysis of Institutional Development Plan (PDI) indicators and bibliographic and electronic surveys. Based on the data obtained by SINTER, it was possible to establish a comparative process of the actions carried out, so that there was no relationship with the internationalization goal proposed in the 2015–2019 PDI. Regarding the set of objectives presented in the PDI, it was not possible to establish a relationship between the presented goal and the activities described in the annual reports from 2015 to 2019, as they do not present the situation related to the UFSC internationalization actions in a clear manner. It is suggested that the institution should provide clearer information in the annual activity reports and also in the PDI Monitoring Report, with the presentation of concrete actions, results achieved, and difficulties and challenges faced.

1. Introduction

The last decades brought socioeconomic, scientific, and technological changes that reshaped the structure of organizations in terms of how they were known [1]. As a result, organizations had to undergo transformations in order to adapt to new trends, gradually adopting a proactive and planned posture. This context also includes public organizations in general and educational institutions in particular.

The management of educational organizations presents constant challenges and requires greater administrative and professional capacity in the face of the numerous changes that these institutions have undergone in recent times [2]. In the case of universities, besides playing an essential role in academic education, it is necessary to pay attention to the requirements and contextual changes to adapt to or be ahead in the market innovations. In this way, the structure, organization, and processes need to be aligned in order to encourage and share science in the globalized world.

In public higher education institutions (HEIs), these processes are shaped by some favorable and unfavorable conditions faced by people in leadership positions. “University managers (rectors, vice rectors, unit directors, department heads, course coordinators, among others responsible for the academic and administrative structure) (…) are responsible for responding to these challenges” [3]. As there are countless interests, objectives, and difficulties of several natures, managing a university is not an easy task and they need to be constantly adapting due to this challenging context [4]. In relation to other organizations, universities need differentiated management processes, including the management of their educational public policies.

As pointed out by Libâneo [5], the educational policies in force in Brazil need to be discussed regarding their impact on the formation of educational inequalities in our society. The immediate relevance of national governments’ educational public policies in institutional processes is emphasized [6]. From this perspective, expanding and developing institutional practices to promote access to cultural and scientific knowledge is a way of overcoming educational equity in our country.

Internationalization within educational public policies is a movement inserted in the context of globalization and involves vital public policy actions for universities, especially federal ones, with the regulation of cooperation agreements in several areas of science. This is a theme that needs to be expanded and better understood in studies of educational policies, including the view that education cannot be thought of as if it were apart from social life because there is a close connection between knowledge and the material production relations historically developed by socioeconomic formations [5, 7].

From this perspective, internationalization involves international exchanges related to public education policies, and it is a process of university relations beyond the nation [8]. The university, as a source of knowledge, its generation and dissemination through the multiplicity of worldviews, philosophical positions, and scientific and political trends, needs to go through its internationalization process to be in line with the growing and effusive globalization of the economy, commerce, and telecommunications, by means of fast technological connections [9, 11].

The Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC), headquartered in Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, has a community of 70,000 people including professors, administrative technicians in education, undergraduate, graduate, secondary, elementary and basic education students, and external public. It is characterized as a public and free university, among the country’s four best federal universities and the fifth in the general ranking, according to the General Course Index (IGC), released by the Ministry of Education in 2019.

Given this perspective, educational policies are intrinsically linked to government decisions, which affect the teaching and learning environment. The reforms that affect universities are a consequence of the influences of international actions and mainly of regional government bodies’ policies, which result in a challenge for universities to formulate their educational policies connected with their internationalization. Thus, the question arises: “How are the internationalization actions promoted by UFSC?”

In order to fulfill its objectives, the university needs to prepare an Institutional Development Plan (PDI) considering all goals and integrating all sectors in order to achieve organizational effectiveness. Consequently, in order to establish the internationalization policy, it is essential to analyze the institution’s current situation, including its vision, mission, and PDI. In this sense, this chapter aims to evaluate UFSC internationalization actions in the period 2015–2019 according to the PDI organizational performance indicators. To this end, concepts of public management were verified as how it occurs in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), in addition to concepts of internationalization, which served as a basis to support their relationship with the data obtained on the effective implementation of UFSC internationalization actions.

It is in this contemporary context that the study on the evaluation of UFSC internationalization actions (2015–2019) is justified, based on Stallivieri [11], who states that academic internationalization in Brazil is something new, despite the recognition of its importance, and it is not just a question of academic life; that is, it should be included in the scope of HEIs policies and strategic decisions with clear goals. The aforementioned statement reveals the importance of this essay, whose objective is to contribute to giving visibility to Brazilian HEIs internationalization management actions, in this case, UFSC. This proposal is due to the UFSC state and regional influence and representativeness through its potential insertion in the regional, national, and international scenario.

The chapter is divided into 5 sections. In addition to this introduction, section 2 presents the theoretical foundation in (i) Public Management, (ii) Management of Higher Education Institutions, and (iii) Internationalization in Federal Universities. Next, section 3 presents the methodological procedures, section 4 presents the analysis of the results, and section 5 presents the final considerations.

2. Theoretical foundation

2.1 Public management

In line with Melati et al. [12], for the construction of a more effective government and for the development of public policies based on knowledge, Public Management should pay attention to a more systematic and effective way of capturing, disseminating, giving transparency, and applying organizational knowledge, through practices and techniques based on relevant information and knowledge for the development of their activities [13]. After all, people’s knowledge is characterized as being an organization’s core value.

Since we are talking about action, this is directly aimed at public agents, servants who, provided with positions and functions, hold responsibilities and powers. The public servant stereotype, stable, unmotivated, impatient, uncommitted, who is not assiduous, does not meet schedules and does not give results, comes to mind and reflects, with few exceptions, the reality of various government departments across the country. Low income and productivity can be a consequence of lack of investments; poor structures, materials, and equipment; time-consuming solutions, and lagged wages, situations that are often presented in the news in the midst of demonstrations, strikes, and professional class dissatisfaction.

Pascarelli Filho ([14], p. 49) points out that public managers should have a comprehensive view of Public Management and, therefore, should receive training that makes them generalist in economics, public finance, public accounting, controllership, human resources, communication, public marketing, strategic planning, legal norms, and public policies, among others.

Therefore, although public service implies knowledge and technical capacity, this is not always observed in practice when appointing civil servants to occupy leadership positions, which is determined by political party compatibility or ideological and personal affinities.

Although the principle of efficiency is linked to the public agents’ actions, Pascarelli Filho ([14], p. 45) states that its practitioners have fallen far short of this.

Failures in public management can be attributed to the bureaucratic model mistakenly developed in the system. Bresser-Pereira [15] argues that the adoption of classic bureaucratic administration emerged linked to the understanding that this would be a superior alternative to patrimonialism management, especially with regard to its assumption of efficiency. However, the author claims that this assumption was not confirmed because it was identified that the bureaucratic model was not a guarantee of speed and quality or of a low cost for services provided to the public. In fact, the bureaucratic administration is characterized as slow, expensive, self-reported, and little oriented toward meeting the citizens’ demands.

In this way, one can discuss the role of the management model adopted in the public sphere and verify its viability in the face of contemporary needs and trends.

2.2 Management of higher education institutions

In recent decades, the Brazilian university system has experienced significant growth, characterized by an increase in the number of HEIs and an increased number of higher education courses offered by these institutions [16].

Brazilian HEIs can be public or private, and public educational institutions are those maintained by the Public Power, at the Federal, State, or Municipal levels. Private HEIs, on the other hand, are managed by individuals or legal entities governed by private law, with or without profit.

Management in HEIs is discussed by different authors, with no conclusive aspects regarding the most appropriate or effective management model for these organizations. Hardy and Fachin [17] propose four governance models in the decision-making process, defining the management type, namely:

• Bureaucratic Model (through standardization of procedures, rigid organizational structure, bureaucratic organization, and academic organization);

• Collective Model (through professionalized bureaucracy, in which centralized power is put against the decentralized power of specialization and knowledge);

• Political Model (emphasis on conflict and the negotiation of interest groups);

• Organized Anarchy Model (characterized by dispersed power, ambiguous objectives, disinterest, lack of effective means of control, and ineffective political activity).

HEIs should be studied as a specific type of complex organization whose characteristics require the adoption of management models and criteria that are different from what takes place in other organizations [18]. Regarding their complexity, universities generally have institutional goals defined in a very broad way—making it difficult to operationalize and measure results—professionals with a high degree of autonomy in relation to their activities; technological complexity that makes standardization impossible; fragmented structure and little subject to formal controls; and decision-making processes involving different actors at different levels [18, 19].

Regarding Federal Universities, the focus of this study, it is observed that they have expanded in Brazil in recent years, with a considerable increase in the number of courses in different areas of knowledge and modalities. This evolution also includes lato and stricto sensu graduate courses. This context reveals the importance of these institutions to social demands and requires management techniques that enable the continuity of their performance in the face of difficulties that may arise.

The university organization model, based on democratic choice through elections, can represent an obstacle to these institutions’ management, since, in most cases, managers are appointed according to criteria of political compatibility and do not always have the necessary qualifications or experience for the assigned management role.

Meyer Junior and Lopes [20] consider that university managers “face challenges that are related to the complex nature of these organizations and that hinder both managerial practice and organizational performance.” The authors add that the ambiguity of objectives, undefined technology, interest groups, shared power, and the measurability of added value represent dispersed characteristics but are interrelated and contribute to the universities’ organizational complexity, constituting, at the same time, barriers to traditional management practices.

According to Mintezberg [21], despite technological innovations and the entire development process, today’s management still maintains many characteristics of past management, characterized by activity brevity and variety, work fragmentation and discontinuity, action orientation, the preference for informal and oral modes of communication, the lateral nature of work, control at work, in short, all forms imposing a fast pace and making it difficult to plan and reflect on actions.

In this sense, university management needs to enable satisfactory results for its public’s and society’s needs, so that such demands can be met, taking into account some quality criteria that are normally defined in planning.

“As a result of different views on quality in higher education, a variety of systems and approaches have been developed to monitor quality of different types and at different levels, indicating varying emphases and priorities” ([22], p. 49). These systems include:

• quality control: It is a system to verify that the products produced or the services provided reach the predefined standards.

• quality assurance: It is based on the premise that everyone in the organization has the responsibility of maintaining and raising the quality of the product or service.

• quality audit: means of making sure that the relevant systems and structures within an institution support its mission to teach, and to ensure that prevention is at or beyond a satisfactory quality level.

• quality assessment: involves judging performance against criteria, either internally or externally. To evaluate universities, performance is compared using an indicator scale, which are associated with different characteristics.

The enactment of the National Education Guidelines and Bases Law, together with the National Education Plan, culminated in the publication of Decree 3860/2001, which determined the legal establishment of the Institutional Development Plan. This document “assumes aspects that concern institutional effectiveness, especially when it determines significant adherence to the assumptions of quality and planning of institutions” [23].

The authors add that with the emergence of Law 10.861/04 and Ordinance 300/06/MEC, the PDI gained the status of a guiding reference for institutional quality, becoming a fundamental instrument in the consolidation of institutional evaluation processes. Decree 5773/06, [24] on the other hand, determined a new structure for the development of the Institutional Development Plan, which now has the added value of the relevant points of the Institutional Pedagogical Project, in addition to consolidating the institutional objectives, the academic area of activity, and a systematic portrait of its epistemology.

Thus, the PDI is now considered a structuring document of the institutional planning process, triggering opportunities for systematic studies in order to promote an understanding of the institutional scope based on concrete actions. “Among other aspects, it can be said that the Institutional Development Plan is now considered a guiding instrument for institutional practices and institutional evaluation, allowing the understanding of the institution’s positioning in a highly competitive environment, as identified in contemporary times” [23].

From the aforementioned study, it was concluded that the PDI consolidates itself as the main reference for the external evaluation of institutions based on its articulation with the management and teaching practices advocated by the institutions and is the main reference for the higher education institution management, regardless of their administrative category or academic setting.

The PDI is an instrument that is in line with the new paradigm of public management: demand for quality, transparency, autonomy, and performance. This is for government control, and above all, for society. In this way, the PDI data should be organized into three hierarchical levels: Dimensions, Categories of Analysis, and Indicators, which facilitate selection, monitoring, and control mechanisms [24].

2.3 Internationalization in federal universities

The higher education internationalization is pointed out as a universal value of knowledge and training, in addition to being an expression focused on the tendency to offer international experiences to its citizens, which is a duty of universities, through the management of a solidified and strengthened interinstitutional cooperation system, and with clear strategies, such as: to enable and integrate the foreign community; facilitate the professor network establishment in the world; provide financial and human resources focused on this public policy; reduce language barriers; sensitize the academic community; foster mobility opportunities; establish partnerships, agreements, and cooperation programs; open job opportunities for graduates; encourage institutional solidarity culture; provide necessary support for the development of teaching, research, and extension; and, finally, evaluate cooperation actions [11, 25].

In an increasingly interdependent world, cooperation between nations is a constant and necessary resource. The international issue in universities dates back to the Middle Ages, when the first European schools were formed. These schools were called Universitas, when students and teachers from different locations moved in search of knowledge and their own educational value. The university, as a source of knowledge, its generation and dissemination through the multiplicity of worldviews, philosophical positions, scientific and political trends, needs to implement its internationalization process to be in line with the growing and effusive globalization of the economy, commerce, and telecommunications by means of fast technological connections [9, 11].

The global economy is identified by its independence, regionalization, and exclusionary segmentation. Different ministries and bodies composed of administrative levels that extend from the system to undergraduate and graduate educational institutions embody the governmental apparatus with their educational policies as part of the set of social public policies in the education regulation movement. The university is between the state and its public policies, the threats of globalization, and the signs of internationalization; these are the challenges imposed by numerous financial and economic restrictions [26, 27].

In the current period of the twenty-first century, social, cultural, and economic changes require managers to have a different look at public management in terms of analysis and global implementation requirements for innovation. On the other hand, educational policies are intrinsically connected to government decisions that affect the teaching and learning environment. The reforms that affect universities are consequences of the influence of international actions and mainly of the regional government bodies’ policies, resulting in the construction of educational policies and HEIs internationalization [28, 29, 30].

The will to take internationalization as a driving element of analysis can also raise new theoretical and empirical questions about a possible new management model. A model to be considered “postmodern” in the national context opens up new areas of analysis, namely on the nature of the method and identity issues in the contemporaneity of higher education internationalization after COVID-19. It considers the interruption of face-to-face activities due to the pandemic; thus, one of the main responses to overcome the blockages has been the virtualization of internationalization, using the “Virtual Exchange,” which designates educational programs that use technology to allow the connection of geographically distant people, generating interaction, communication, and development of global skills [31].

This added to the aim of increasing the visibility and competitiveness of the knowledge produced in Brazil for the international scenario. Besides, by providing opportunities for the country’s collaboration in the development of technologies and solutions to global problems and expanding interactivity with the rest of the world through research partnerships, Brazilian educational institutions have increasingly turned to internationalization. Based on this visibility, contemporary public administration uses the PDI as a tool for its strategic planning, which lasts for 5 years and is a mandatory document for all HEIs. The aim of this study is to verify UFSC’s strategic internationalization actions and goals mentioned in the PDI (2015–2019). Subsequently, confront the findings with what was done and obtained through the Office of International Relations (SINTER), the division responsible for promoting UFSC internationalization.

3. Methodology

This is an explanatory-descriptive qualitative piece of research based on bibliographic and electronic surveys. This theme has been chosen due to the sense of exploring a new area with unforeseen problems that may arise during the study and also because of its uniqueness [32, 33]. Yin [34] discusses the fact that exploratory studies are carried out because of a gap in previous research on the chosen topic, as well as in literary references.

The qualitative approach occupies a recognized place among the various possibilities of studying the phenomena that involve human beings and their intricate social relations in different environments. UFSC was chosen because the researchers are students at the institution. The institution presents essential characteristics such as natural environment as a direct data source; researchers as a fundamental data collection source; use of descriptive procedures of the reality studied; search for meaning of situations to people and the effects on their lives; concern with the process and not only with the results and the product, and privilege to the inductive approach in data analysis [35].

Due to the context of institutional activity interruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the research was developed from the institutional documents available on the Internet on the UFSC Portal.

Data collection was carried out using documentary research procedures from the UFSC PDI as a primary data source in order to verify the goals set in the period 2015–2019. Subsequently, based on the management reports for the referred periods, the actions that actually took place were verified. The reports are available on the UFSC Portal—https://propg.ufsc.br/cin/print/—and are organized according to the study areas of the selected projects. Other documents are also available on the website, such as Manuals and procedures, Legislation, Demonstrative spreadsheets and presentations, Approved projects, among others (Figure 1).

Figure 1.

Research model. Source: Authors (2023).

Documentary research, according to May [36], is a means of reinforcing understanding in case studies, as it makes it possible to place contemporary reports in historical contexts. The author adds that documentary sources can say many things about the way in which events take place, and the justifications employed and also provide materials on which to base further investigations. With this in mind, through the research proposal based on the PDI, it was possible to identify the demands and proposals presented in an initial context and, later, verify how such proposals were treated, whether or not they became reality, and why.

The projects that were selected for the 2018–2022 quadrennium are available on the Internationalization Coordination website through the link https://novaprpg.paginas.ufsc.br/files/2019/02/Table-Areas-conhecimento.pdf. Each project received an amount, the sum of which gave rise to an amount per area of knowledge and, subsequently, the general amount invested in the period 2018–2022.

4. Analyses of results

4.1 UFSC characterization

UFSC is a Brazilian federal public higher education institution, the largest university in the state of Santa Catarina, and one of the main institutions in the country’s South region. The headquarters and the University City are in Florianópolis, on the Reitor João David Ferreira Lima Campus, also called Trindade Campus, which concentrates on the vast majority of courses.

It is considered one of the main HEIs in Brazil—it is the 7th best public university in the country, according to the INEP assessment. In the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, published by the Times Higher Education magazine, UFSC is one of the eight Brazilian universities among the top 800 universities worldwide. According to the same magazine, it is also the 9th best university in Latin America; besides, as reported by the QS World University Rankings, it is the 23rd best in Latin America, the 8th among Brazilian universities, and the 4th among federal universities and was listed as the 10th best HEI in Latin America by the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities, ranking 7th among Brazilian universities and 4th among federal ones.

UFSC offers 120 undergraduate courses and 149 graduate programs, also providing basic education. Besides teaching, the university has laboratories, cultural and social equipment, and several extension projects, which include, for example, the University Hospital. Its installation and consolidation were important for the growth of Florianópolis and for the strengthening of several areas in Santa Catarina, especially the industry.

4.2 UFSC internationalization programs

Internationalization is considered by reference universities to be a necessary process to raise the rates of excellence in research and provide broad education and training for the academic community, enabling the transition in an increasingly globalized world.

In this context, several internationalization efforts and initiatives were carried out by the UFSC, which require a systematic restructuring that allows the implementation, coordination, and evaluation of these activities, as set out in the UFSC Institutional Internationalization Plan, prepared in 2018.

Among the institutional internationalization policies, there are activities aimed at the establishment of an institutional linguistic policy, with the valuation of plurilingualism, intercultural relations, and social inclusion; offer of courses, workshops, training, and assistance in different languages, with an initial focus on English and Portuguese for foreigners; democratization of access to language learning for students, professors, and technical-administrative staff; training of teachers to teach subjects in foreign languages and issuance, recognition, and validation of documents in English.

There is also a policy of student mobility through the offer of scholarships at undergraduate and graduate levels, reformulation of the resolutions that govern the procedures for validation and recognition of subjects taken in accredited institutions, and negotiations to increase the number of incoming mobility students.

Furthermore, UFSC also has a mobility policy for technical-administrative staff in international programs managed by SINTER, and offers “capacity building” opportunities from other founding programs, and foreign language courses offered and directed at specific assistance to administrative technicians.

Finally, regarding the mobility policy, professors can participate in mobility programs and collaborate in research through an increased number of collaborative research projects and individual fellowships by means of programs offered by the European Research Council (ERC), the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Erasmus, and Newton Fund; Visiting Professors programs; promotion of faculty mobility in short-term events; support for the creation and expansion of cooperation and research projects at the international level; stimulus to researchers to take up positions in international research organizations or in international journals and publications; and assistance in organizing international academic conferences at UFSC.

4.3 SINTER

As described in the Activity Reports, the Office of International Relations (SINTER) is an executive body that is part of the UFSC Central Administration, directly linked to the Rector’s Office, whose main objectives are to:

• promote interaction with international organizations and HEIs, research, technological innovation institutions, and art schools;

• support and implement technical, scientific, and cultural cooperation agreements, as well as enable the exchange of students, professors, and technical-administrative staff, and

• assist the university in the performance of its activities involving foreign and international organizations in academic and administrative matters, and, when necessary, in the financial area.

According to the information contained in the SINTER Activity Reports in 2018 and 2019, it was only possible to establish a comparative process of the actions carried out so that there was no relationship with the internationalization goal proposed in the 2015–2019 PDI (Table 1).

Action	2018	2019
Notification of Selection Results	14	17
Outgoing Mobility Students (Undergraduate)	206	163
Incoming Mobility Students (Undergraduate)	400	420
Outgoing Mobility Students (Graduate)	6	3
Incoming Mobility Students (Graduate)	2	4
Outgoing Mobility Students (Administrative Technicians in Education – TAEs)	5	4
Incoming Mobility Students (TAEs)	5	4
Outgoing Mobility Faculty	11	9
Incoming Mobility Faculty	16	8
Cooperation Agreements	87	80

Table 1.

2015–2019 SINTER activity reports.

Source: SINTER (2019).

Thus, despite the increased number of public notices available for internationalization opportunities in 2019, what can be seen is that there was a decrease in the number of selected individuals, with the exception of the number of international undergraduate and graduate students who enrolled in a course at UFSC.

4.4 UFSC PDI (2015–2019)

Data analysis was based on the information made available in the UFSC PDI for the period from 2015 to 2019 and that, in this specific case, is about [37]:

“a planning document and instrument, to be considered within the strategic management, which characterizes the institutional identity. It defines the mission and future vision of the Universidade Federal Santa de Catarina (UFSC), as well as the strategies, guidelines and policies to be followed to achieve its objectives and goals” (PDI UFSC 2015-2019, p. 7).

In this document, one analyzes the proposals and intentions of the university’s internationalization.

Internationalization appears in two of the set of objectives presented in the PDI, the first related to the reception policy, monitoring, and pedagogical support for undergraduate and graduate students (Objective 5), whose goal is “To collaborate for the academic integration of foreign students enrolled in the institution, favoring internationalization with quality in undergraduate and graduate courses at UFSC.”

Objective 13 specifically presents the goals regarding the expansion of the UFSC internationalization activities:

1. To increase international cooperation actions and projects;

2. To foster institutional, interinstitutional, national, and international cooperation in research networks, especially those of high complexity;

3. To encourage the participation of professors, students, and technical-administrative staff in international scientific events for the presentation of papers;

4. To expand publication in journals indexed in international reference databases;

5. To encourage the international exchange of the student body and dual degree and co-tutorship programs.

In the absence of performance indicators or criteria for monitoring internationalization actions, the goals of objective 13 were adopted as a parameter for evaluating these actions, as shown in Table 2.

Goal	Result	Document
1	Decreasing from 87 to 80 cooperation agreements	SINTER Report 2019
2	Not mentioned in the reports	—
3	Decrease in departures of students, technicians, and teachers from 2018 to 2019	SINTER Report 2019
4	Not mentioned in the reports	—
5	Not mentioned in the reports	—

Table 2.

Evaluation of internationalization activities.

Source: Authors (2022).

As you can see, although the goals of expanding internationalization actions were clearly established in the PDI, they were not adequately developed or monitored, with a decrease in the participation of students, technicians, and teachers in international projects. Furthermore, the goals were not presented in the reports, so that an evaluation of their performance became unfeasible. This reveals a failure in the management of such actions at UFSC.

Next, the document presents the goal of the Protectorate for Graduate Studies (PROPG), under the responsibility of the Scholarship Coordination (CBO), which is the “expansion of the national insertion and internationalization of graduate studies at UFSC,” then states that the interaction between PROPG and graduate programs facilitate actions aimed at improving national insertion in Interinstitutional Doctorate (Dinter) and Interinstitutional Master’s (Minter) projects, and international insertion in various internationalization programs, such as Erasmus Mundus, Scholarships for Sandwich Doctorate programs, Foreign Visiting Professors, post-doctorate programs abroad, and reception of doctoral degree holders to carry out post-doctoral programs at UFSC, besides stimulus to the establishment of agreements that allow double doctoral degrees and co-supervision.

Still analyzing the PDI, in Chapter 4, when dealing with Institutional Innovations and Interactions, there is a subtopic that presents National and International Institutional Interactions, which states that “UFSC has a good track record in terms of internationalization and enjoys a comfortable position in any national ranking on the subject, always among the top ten.” The subtopic goes on to mention the current state (at the time of the PDI writing) in which “around 2% of UFSC students are international, temporary exchange students (sandwich degree) or covenant students (PEC-G, PEC-PG, PAEC- GCUB), and 10% of regular UFSC students have been on exchange abroad.”

Finally, the document presents the goal set for internationalization:

“UFSC should have as a goal, at the end of the current five-year period, a minimum of 5% undergraduate student population as international students and at least 5% undergraduate students on exchange programs, which projects 25% students to have international experience. At the postgraduate level, at least 50% doctoral students have to perform a sandwich program or co-tutorship. Among professors, international scientific collaborations should be encouraged, as well as offering technicians the opportunity to improve abroad” (PDI UFSC 2015-2019, p. 106).

Additionally, the document presents a narrative about the internationalization desired by UFSC, based on agreements with other institutions and national support to promote actions.

Thus, the theme of Internationalization was presented in the 2015–2019 UFSC PDI.

4.4.1 2015–2019 PDI monitoring report

The 2015–2019 PDI Monitoring Report was a document published in 2020 in order to “bring an understanding, based on data, of how the University acted to achieve its objectives and goals established in the 2015–2019 PDI” (p. 1).

The document mentions internationalization in a subtopic related to the Protectorate for Graduate Studies’ performance. As reported, “in 2018 and 2019, PROPG underwent a significant readjustment due to the new UFSC internationalization guidelines. Several procedures have been reviewed and readjusted” (PDI Monitoring Report, p. 52). However, there are no details about such procedures and readjustments or the results of these measures in specific internationalization actions, since such details are generally related to PROPG’s organizational and administrative structure, and it is not possible to identify the specific case in question.

The topic ends with an assessment of the stimulus provided by the approval of the PRINT-CAPES project, involving foreign professors’ missions and the implementation of some subjects in International Distance Learning.

4.4.2 The UFSC internationalization plan

This is a guiding document for UFSC internationalization actions, and it presents the objective of consolidating the UFSC internationalization process in the subsequent 4 years (from 2018). The document presents the internationalization policies and guidelines to express the parameters within which the actions of the institution and its members have to be developed in the fulfillment of the mission to achieve its vision.

In this way, the UFSC Internationalization Plan is yet another support tool for internationalization actions, with policies, guidelines, norms, and goals to be followed in order to achieve its objectives in the desired time frame. The definitions of competences are listed in the document, where the actions and respective sectors in charge are pointed out. In this sense, it is clear that there was a definition in the distribution of responsibility according to the activities.

4.5 Annual activity reports

Annual activity reports are administrative documents that present the results of actions promoted by the institution, or, in the case of noncompletion, the impeding reasons and challenges faced.

As for the theme of internationalization, the 2015 Management Report presents only the total targets linked to Objective 13 presented in the 2015–2019 PDI (as presented in item 4.4). However, the referred report does not present details about the actions taken to develop the goals nor an evaluation of what still needs to be developed in relation to the general goal presented in the PDI.

The 2016 Management Report presents the SINTER organization chart and a table with information about position holders, competences, positions, and periods of operation. Like the previous report, it presents the number of goals in relation to PDI Objective 13 without details about the actions developed or to be developed.

Like the previous ones, the 2017 Management Report does not bring new information about internationalization actions; only updated information is from SINTER staff.

The 2018 Management Report presents new information on the subject under analysis. Right at the beginning, there is a message from the Rector noting that “the internationalization policies were stimulated, resulting in the approval of our projects under the Print Program of the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES)” and he adds that “the consolidation of internationalization and the solution of the infrastructure demands of the campuses have to be priorities (emphasis added) for the continued success of UFSC.”

Regarding the actions of the Protectorate for Research and Innovation, there is a mention of the 2018–2022 Vision, which highlights the improvement, consolidation, and internationalization of graduate studies. There is also an evaluation of the academic programs offered, where seven out of every 10 present grades of excellence (between 5 and 7) “with excellent indicators of solidarity, nucleation, leadership and internationalization” ([38], p. 40).

The report informs of the Institutional Project for the Internationalization of Graduate Studies (PII-PG), approved in the CAPES Institutional Program for Internationalization (PRINT) in 2018 and which encompasses 40 of the 43 UFSC Graduate Programs that have a grade equal to or greater than 5. This project, which covers the period 2018–2022, “is composed of 27 subprojects, which provide for interdisciplinarity, deepening or building partnerships with 290 foreign institutions distributed in 36 countries.” There are five main themes to which these subprojects are allocated, aiming to expand the internationalization of graduate activities and, consequently, of UFSC.

The approval of the project linked to CAPES/PRINT made R$ 53,955,535.06 available to be used in the period 2018–2022 “in missions linked to the cooperation project, as well as in the granting of training scholarships, sandwich doctorate programs, young talent with experience abroad, visiting professor in Brazil, visiting professor abroad (junior and senior) and post-doctoral degree with experience abroad [39].”

Table 3 presents the breakdown of project funding according to thematic areas:

Theme	Value
Languages, Interculturality, and Identities	11,080,032.98
Nanoscience and Nanotechnology	6,086,834.45
Human Health	9,994,355.28
Environmental Sustainability	13,918,633.18
Digital Transformation: Industry and Services 4.0	7,418,947.17
Actions not linked to projects	5,546,732.00
Overall	53,955,535.06

Table 3.

2018–2022 PRINT/CAPES-UFSC financial resources.

Source: PROPG/UFSC.

In the topic on the actions of the Protectorate for Research and Innovation, it is noted that the sector has contributed to “expanding the interaction of researchers with society and fostering their internationalization” (p. 44). However, there is no detail about such information.

The 2019 Activity Report begins with a message from the Rector highlighting the increase in internationalization programs. However, as before, without presenting details. Among UFSC attributes, the vision stands out: “a reference university in the internationalization of higher education, capable of intensifying partnerships and agreements with international institutions” (…).

The Dean for Graduate Studies presents an evaluation of its programs in which “23 academic graduate program have a grade of 5, 17 have a grade of 6 and 3 have a grade of 7, with excellent indicators of solidarity, nucleation, leadership and internationalization” (emphasis added), without specifying what these “excellent indicators” in relation to internationalization would be, or how this assessment was made.

With regard to the Dean for Research and Innovation, the Report presents goals and challenges for 2020, instead of focusing on what was accomplished or what was left unaccomplished and for what reasons, such as the following: “to expand the interaction of researchers with society and encourage their internationalization” (Relatórios Anuais de Atividades, p. 45).

Challenges projected for 2020: to offer a distance course for foreign language students, aimed at the basic teaching of the Portuguese language, in compliance with the UFSC Internationalization Policy, managed by SINTER; promote in-house internationalization for professors, students, and administrative technician in education (TAEs). Thus, at the end of the 2019 Report, communication actions are presented through the dissemination of events and opportunities and the elaboration of technical opinions based on the theme of internationalization, which only refers to routine work at the university, without proof of result effectiveness.

Based on the analysis of the annual management reports, it was not possible to establish a relationship with the internationalization target presented in the 2015–2019 PDI. The reports are not objective in presenting the actions or reasons that prevented the development of activities related to internationalization. The documents mistakenly present data that refer to the planning of future actions or are restricted to mentioning advances and improvements in the subject under analysis, however, without directly presenting the actions that generated such results.

The activities reported in the documents according to the sectors in which they were carried out make it possible to perceive that actions are not taken in an integrated manner; that is, each sector develops its actions, and there is a lack of coordination in order to verify the relationship with the goal and that would enable better definition and control of best actions and decisions to be taken.

The study carried out by Silva et al. [40] on internal internationalization policies at a university in the Southern Region of Brazil shows that the institution has an item aimed at internationalization in its institutional development plan (PDI). In the field study, the authors report that the institution records its internationalization actions in its own system (Strategic Adviser), recording indicators and their positions in relation to their goals. The study does not present quantitative data on the number of projects carried out or the amount invested, which makes a comparative analysis with the data obtained in this study impossible.

5. Contributions

Internationalization, as a public policy for higher education, is an important strategy to encourage and share science in a globalized world. Regarding the studied institution, UFSC, internationalization is seen as a continuous process, but for this process to be progressively successful, it is necessary that all involved parties are in tune. In order to fulfill the research objective, that is, to evaluate UFSC internationalization actions in the period 2015–2019, it was not possible to obtain clear results from the internationalization process by using the data obtained.

From the information available in the documents collected, it was not possible to establish a relationship between the presented goal and the activities described in the annual reports from 2015 to 2019. In fact, such reports do not present the situation in relation to UFSC internationalization actions. The documents report on the organizational structure, commitments in the internationalization actions, and sectors or bodies in charge in a generic manner; however, without presenting detailed information about the actions, presenting only the quantitative nature of projects or number of people involved in internationalization.

It was possible to compare some aspects mentioned in the 2018 and 2019 documents only from SINTER management reports. As highlighted in the respective topic, there was a decrease in the number of individuals from the academic community (students, professors, and TAEs) selected to participate in international activities. The increase verified was in relation to foreign incoming undergraduate and graduate students who developed activities at UFSC. Based on this information, when making a comparison with the internationalization goal presented in the 2015–2019 PDI, it appears that there has been very little progress in this regard, since the numbers do not approach 25% undergraduate students or 50% doctoral degree holders with international experience mentioned in the goal.

The activity reports from 2015 to 2017 bring the internationalization information presented in the PDI (Objective 13), with the list of projects that were also made available in the Plan. Only from 2018—possibly after the implementation of PRINT/CAPES—more information about internationalization was made available, but without the quantitative details about students/professors involved, or projects in force. The information provided always focuses on the commitment in the development of internationalization actions, however, without making it clear whether or not the presented goal was achieved.

Due to the suspension of UFSC face-to-face activities as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, direct access to the university sectors was not possible in order to collect more information or details about those actions. Despite attempts to contact those sectors via e-mail, there were no answers, or they were no longer operational.

As a result, there was a perception of a certain lack of control over which sector was responsible for such actions because when e-mails were sent, the answers referred to other sectors or to servants who would know how to make the information available; besides, sometimes the information provided was incomplete because the servant was new at the sector and had not followed previous actions.

With the existence of sectors with such possibilities of action in the area of internationalization, such as SINTER, the Protectorate for Graduate Studies, the Protectorate for Research and Innovation, and even the Internationalization Committee, actions tend to be compromised due to lack of integration, and one sector can wait for another sector to take responsibility for an action.

The crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic undermined the initial intention of this study to carry out a more in-depth analysis of this issue. A limiting factor was the data source from the documentary research. There was no way to clarify points presented in the documents, which remained almost an exclusive source since only one answer via e-mail was useful.

Nevertheless, from the consideration of this information, it is suggested that UFSC should provide clearer information in the annual activity reports and also in the PDI Monitoring Report, since it is expected that these documents present concrete actions, results achieved, difficulties, and challenges faced (reasons that interfered or hindered the actions). It was noticed that these documents represented PDI information, not highlighting the actions nor informing about actions or work results in relation to internationalization in a clear manner.

Based on the methodology used and available documents, it is considered that the proposed objective was met, as the conclusions were based on the information contained in the institutional documents.

In this perspective, HEIs internationalization is considered simultaneously necessity and strategy, process and imposition, and the internationalization of educational policies in Brazil deserves to be analyzed and debated. Thus, for future research, direct access to UFSC sectors is suggested in order to conduct interviews with those responsible for internationalization actions so that they can fill the information gap and verify more objectively the progress and implementation of the institution internationalization.