Reflections on the organizational identity of Brazilian universities in their mission statements

Abstract

This study investigated whether institutional characteristics of Brazilian universities are reflected in their mission statements. Based on corpus linguistics techniques, the most frequent terms and their co-occurrences were identified, and keyword in context searches were conducted using Voyant Tools. Results have revealed differences between public and private universities, with the former emphasizing their commitment to citizenship and social and sustainable development, and the latter placing a greater emphasis on professional training. On average, private universities have shorter mission statements but higher lexical diversity. Public universities make fewer references to corporate values such as entrepreneurship. Such findings corroborate studies carried out in other countries. However, when comparing to foreign universities, Brazilian university mission statements mention internationalization and research less frequently.