On July 7, Marcelle Rossi de Mello Brandão publicly defended her doctoral thesis in Education at Universidade Lusófona. The thesis, titled “Educational Management and the Valorization of the Academic Profession: An Analysis of the Brazilian Higher Education System”, explored the impact of institutional policies on faculty competencies and organizational citizenship behaviors in Brazilian universities.

Supervised by Carla Galego and co-supervised by Artur Marecos Pereira, the study analyzed data from 386 faculty members, proposing a theoretical model that connects professional development, work conditions, research incentives, and institutional recognition to academic performance and institutional engagement.

The examination committee included:

• Professor António Teodoro (Universidade Lusófona)
• Professor Maria Luísa Machado Cerdeira (University of Lisbon)
• Professor Maria Teresa Geraldo Carvalho (University of Aveiro)
• Professor Sidney Luiz de Matos Mello (Fundação Cesgranrio – Brazil)
• Professor Maria de Lourdes Machado-Taylor (Universidade Lusófona)
• Professor Vítor Manuel Neves Duarte Teodoro (Universidade Lusófona)

The defense took place in a hybrid format, with live transmission via Zoom, underlining the international scope of the research and Universidade Lusófona's commitment to fostering academic collaboration across continents.