PROFESSIONAL MASTER'S DEGREE IN UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATION: CHALLENGES AND PERSPECTIVES IN THE PROCESS OF UNIVERSTY MANAGEMENT

This article seeks to understand the historical and social development of the Professional Master's Degree in University Administration aiming at the training process of the managers. This study is characterized by a case study with qualitative nature, having as information source professors of the Professional Master's Degree in University Administration, through questionnaires. The research identified that there is consensus among professors interviewed about the role and purpose of the Master's Degree in University Administration as: training and professionalization of university management; of the university as a social institution, producer, creator and form of socializing of knowledge; and of University Management, in a broad sense, as administrative action that should consider the specific aims of universities as social institutions. The research showed the professors ' perceptions of the financial aspect of public policies as an element that imposes limitations and prevents the development actions of the university itself. In this context, given the challenges and perspectives experienced by the Master's Degree in University Administration, the evident contradiction is that, while training is the essence of the management process, this training is denied by the concept existing of management.