Efeitos da Pandemia da Covid-19 sobre os programas de pós--graduação (Stricto Sensu) da Universidade Federal do Ceará (UFC): estudo com o uso da Metodologia Multicritério Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA )

Abstract

Covid-19 is a respiratory syndrome caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, with a high speed of propagation, being introduced to the world in 2019, becoming the largest and most devastating pandemic of the modern era, claiming the lives of more than 6.8 million people. This research focuses on the field of Higher Education and aims to contribute to the Brazilian university system by addressing the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on postgraduate programs at the Federal University of Ceará, with the aim of testing the following hypotheses: Hypothesis 1: The performance of postgraduate programs (stricto sensu) before the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic was superior to the performance after the pandemic; Hypothesis 2: There were postgraduate programs (stricto sensu) that maintained levels of efficiency similar to the pre-pandemic period. The objective was, therefore, to diagnose the impacts of Covid-19 on the performance of postgraduate programs (stricto sensu) at the Federal University of Ceará from a longitudinal ex ante (2017-2019) and ex post facto (2020-2022) perspective, using Data Envelopment Analysis, one of the main techniques for estimating the efficiency of production units. The results found that the Covid-19 pandemic impacted the postgraduate programs (stricto sensu) at the Federal University of Ceará, while it highlighted longitudinal variations in performance presented by the Decision-Making Units, that is, the postgraduate programs (stricto sensu), and identified those that achieved maximum levels of efficiency over time. It was also found that the longitudinal efficiency curve of the Decision-Making Units showed a steeper drop in 2021, a period in which the restrictions inherent to the pandemic were imposed more intensively. In general terms, it was observed that, in 2017, 2018 and 2019, the average relative efficiency of postgraduate programs (stricto sensu) was 0.95%, 0.87% and 0.96%, respectively. In 2020, the average efficiency fell 5% compared to 2019, reaching a value of 0.91%. In 2021, this drop was more significant, with a value of 0.75%, that is, a reduction of 21% compared to 2019. In 2022, the data signaled recovery, with an average value of 0.94% efficiency and only a 2% difference compared to 2019. The results obtained provoke reflections on the relative efficiency of postgraduate programs (stricto sensu) during the pandemic period and expose the weight of each indicator analyzed, while pointing out benchmarks (partnerships of excellence) so that inefficient Decision-Making Units can mirror themselves with the aim of improving their productivity.