The educational reforms that began in the 1990s have changed Brazilian universities' direction from welfare state institutions to market organisations. In postgraduate education, strategic alliances with international agencies, governments and corporations have become closer. At the same time, there has been a push for internationalisation of knowledge and more efficiency--with quality assurance and accountability systems. This study, based on the theory of "policy enactments" proposed by Stephen Ball and collaborators, aims to analyse the interpretation and translation of Brazil's postgraduate education programmes' evaluation policy. The data are derived from interviews with co-ordinators of four Brazilian postgraduate programmes in education--all regarded by the Higher Education Co-ordination Agency, CAPES, as programmes of excellence and of international standard (during the assessment triennials of 2004, 2007 and 2010). The data analysis provided a critical understanding of the evaluation policy as policy enactment, and of the small margin for manoeuvre in decision-making in response to the policy and performativity's effect on academic subjectivity and collective practice.