This article has the purpose of verifying which approaches of the institutional perspective were predominant in the models of institutional evaluation proposed by the governments to the Brazilian universities. This study can be characterized as qualitative, in which the focal points were verified through theoretical revision of the different aspects of the institutional theory, of the history of Brazilian institutional evaluation, as well as the characterization of each evaluative model proposed by the governments since the 1970s. The study made evident that the institutional evaluation models during different governments presented a different institutional focus, with the predominance of the regulatory and normative focuses, although the cognitive is the one that permeates Brazil's present institutional evaluation system.
Institutional evaluation; Institutional theory; Institutional focus