The efficiency of graduate programs is directly linked to a country's capacity for innovation, which entails the need to diagnose the causes of low academic performance, as well as the development of techniques and methods to evaluate and measure the performance of educational units. Thus, the aim of this research is to analyze the efficiency of Brazilian graduate programs using Multiple Regression and Data Envelopment Analysis tools from 2014. In order to do this, a specific area was selected, called Engineering III, which includes production, mechanical, industrial and aerospace engineering programs. The results of this research can contribute to a better understanding of the dynamics and determining factors of the national academic production in order to generate knowledge concerning graduate programs, especially courses that did not meet the technical production efficiency standards required by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), an organ responsible for graduate studies in Brazil. By analysis, there is a need to reposition the CAPES evaluation process in terms of the variables to be considered, as well as the criteria applied for this. Manuscript profile