An experiment in graduate education in science technology in Brazil

Abstract

Academie institutions in deve loping countries often face difficulties in planning effective graduate education in science and technology. Most such institutions do not have material or human resources to embark on highly specialized and purely academia programes which always saem to form the basis of "conventional" graduate programes in relatively prosperous countries. Recently the effectiveness of even these conventional graduate programmes is being questioned. Ideally, educational programes for higher learning in deve loping nations should be planned in such a manner that even while taking the prescribed courses the participante are able to broaden their outlook and to find a way to apply their newly-gained knowledge to the development of the country in general. This topic is important from a global point of view and is very often debated in international meetings. This papei' desenhes some of the typical problems in a developing country and how they are being dealt with in an experimental manner at the Institute for Space Research (INPE), Brazil where graduate as well as other short-time speeialized courses are being offered by a team of professore, Brazilians and visitara, in space science, meteorology, electronics and communication, mathematics, system analysis, remote sensing and educational technology (with the use of a comunication cate lute for educational broadcasts). The idea originated from the needs of the Institute to train its own personnel. Later, this proved to be se good that the courses were tater fórmalized se as to be of M. S. level (also doctoral in some disciplines). The courses, though sufficiently general in nature, are oriented towards some définite objective and an attempt is always mede to achieve a balance between theory and practice. This model could very well suit similar institutions in other deve loping countries.

Number of Pages: 35