This work is about the National Evaluation System of Higher Education; SINAES - as it is called in Brazil. It analyses conceptual lines of direction and the guide instructions used for external evaluation. The method of analysis is based on a setting of comparisons between the system adopted in Brazil and other countries whose standards of quality in higher education are internationally recognized. The study presents the main concepts about which national and international literature set the principles of external evaluation, particularly the idea of accountability or rendering of accounts and the definition of benchmarking, the later which is understood as the systematic integration among each and every piece of information obtained from agencies and sectional commissions. The structure of the matrix of the dimensions for the external evaluation of the National Evaluation System of Higher Education - SINAES is focused, also showing details of the used criteria for the attribution of concepts to the indicators of Titles, Working Rules and Publication of the Teaching Staff. As main conclusion, the study presents the reasons through which the related criteria need to be reconsidered by pointing out their defective points and the way to their improvement.
Higher Education Evaluation; Quality indicators; SINAES
