This article presents an analysis of Brazilian National System of Higher Education Assessment (SINAES) in the light of social learning for sustainability theory. The aim is to contribute to the advancement of debates surrounding education for sustainability and the improvement of public policy evaluation in higher education. The analysis is divided into two steps: (i) a qualitative study undertaken in 22 higher education institutions regarding the assessment of their Business Administration or Technologist in Management courses; (ii) analysis of the questions from the tests applied to the National Examination for the same courses. The results from the visits show that there are few Brazilian institutions that consistently integrate sustainability in their academic management or educational projects. In the National Examination, sustainability is often present in an underlying manner, and in a very few instances, the student is obliged to assume a protagonist posture when solving problems. Despite this weakness, SINAES has an undeniable merit in inducing and monitoring the presence of sustainability in the formation of management professionals.