BACKGROUND

3.1 School of Medicine

3.1.1 Training of researchers

Postgraduate teaching in the School of Medicine was initially aimed almost exclusively at the training of specialists in different fields of medicine with the purpose of preparing doctors who would provide optimal quality in their professional exercise.1

During the decade of the fifties, postgraduate studies in what was then the National Medical School began to be formally developed with emphasis on the training of professors and researchers of a high level. In 1951, the first doctoral degree was awarded; the honor corresponded to Alfredo Sánchez Marroquín, whose area of interest was microbiology. By 1954, the first master's degree had been awarded and it was given to Luis Landa y Verdugo whose field of work was gastroenterology. In 1957, the National Medical School provided its Doctoral Division with Regulations that, although adequate, followed those of the extinct Graduate School that had awarded the previous degrees. However, the first master's degrees and Ph.D. degrees were created during 1958, and paved the way to the National Medical School, an undergraduate school, becoming the School of Medicine in 1960.

3.1.2 Background to the normativity of postgraduate studies in the School

In 1964, the Doctoral Regulations were replaced by the Regulations of the Higher Studies Division of the School of Medicine. These Regulations were studied by a special commission appointed by the Technical Council of the School formed by the doctors Alejandro Celis, Carlos D. Guerrero and Alberto Guevara Rojas and were drawn up by the Doctorate Division.

The change of name from the Doctorate Division to the Higher Studies Division (DES) was due to the fact that the former referred only to doctoral studies and the latter was more in agreement with the multiple, broad purposes of postgraduate studies. The Regulations of the DES considered that one of the greatest educational needs at that time consisted in awarding high level academic degrees through master's and doctoral studies.

3.1.3 Postgraduate Studies in Medical Sciences begin

One of the objectives the DES pursued, which was specified in the first article of its Regulations, was to train professors and researchers in the different medical disciplines. Among the teaching activities contemplated in complying with this charge was to give courses leading to academic degrees at master's degree and Ph.D. degree level in medical sciences in determined specialties.

The rules then in force established that the activities to be carried out to obtain a master's degree had the purpose of obtaining in-depth knowledge of one branch of medicine, with the necessary length and intensity for special training for teaching.

For their part, doctoral studies sought to give the student with aptitude for original research optimal training in a branch of medicine without excluding training for teaching, and without it being necessary for the student to have previously obtained a master's degree. These two degrees had an academic character without this necessarily being a legal requirement for professional or teaching practice.

In the Regulations it was established that in order to do a master's degree in a determined specialty, the candidate would be required to have a degree as Medical Surgeon and a diploma as a specialist. The candidate was also required to have taken special courses in biology, physiology and mathematics or to present an examination in these subjects and translation examinations in two modern languages. Similarly, it was stipulated that candidates for a master's degree had the obligation to give courses in their specialties as adjunct professors, which they would not be paid for. In the same way, they had to actively collaborate in the supervision of scientific work and, at the same time, work on their master's degree thesis on a subject of the specialty with a research character.

In order to be awarded a Ph.D. in Medical Sciences, the students had to satisfy one or several of the following requirements: have a master's degree in the corresponding medical specialty, or a diploma in a specialization, or have taught a subject in the respective branch of medicine as permanent professor for five consecutive years or have practiced the specialty for a period of at least five years, or have had institutional practice at a high academic level for at least five years. Furthermore, the student had to have taken special courses in biology, physiology and mathematics, be able to translate two modern languages and have publications on the specialty in serious scientific journals. The "thesis examination" had to be taken within a maximum period of five years after finishing the studies.2

In its session of 10 April, 1973, the University Council approved the creation of the Master's degree and Ph.D. in Psychiatry.

The Postgraduate degree in Medical Sciences was given a strong stimulus by the University Program for Clinical Research with its creation in 1981. This postgraduate program had three academic sites where the obligatory subjects and research seminars were given: the National Nutrition Institute, The National Medical Center and La Raza Medical Center. The research project could be carried out in any institution of the health sector that had an academic tutor approved by the Postgraduate Studies Division. The fundamental purpose of these programs was to train clinical researchers and therefore an entry requirement was that the students had finished a medical specialty.

In 1982, the First Annual Meeting on Master's Degrees and Ph.D. Degrees in Health Sciences was organized with the purpose of fostering communication between the students of the different educational institutions with master's degree and Ph.D. studies in the area, to assess the degree of advance in the research projects of the students and familiarize them with the organization and development of scientific events. These meetings, that were established by UNAM through the Postgraduate Studies Division of the School of Medicine and the present University Program in Research into Health, have continued on a yearly basis in an interrupted fashion.

Later on, an academic committee of experts was formed that was responsible for drawing up the study plan for the Master's Degree in Medicine which was approved by the University Council in November, 1990.

3.1.4 Postgraduate Studies in Biomedical Sciences are approved

Similarly, in April 1973, the University Council approved the creation of the Master's Degree and Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences. These programs in the biomedical area were given in the basic sciences departments of the School itself.

In parallel, the Specialty in Biomedical Sciences was created, which offered a shorter possibility for students who could not finish master's degree studies but that giving them sufficient knowledge to permit the practical exercise of some area of biomedicine.

3.1.5 Postgraduate Studies in Sociomedical Sciences are introduced

During 1986, with 21 students, the Master's Degree in Sociomedical Sciences was created with three areas: Statistics Applied to Health, Epidemiology, and Health at Work. The centers for this master's degree were the Social Medicine, Preventive Medicine and Public Health Department of the School of Medicine and the Mexican Social Security Institute.

In 1990, the School of Medicine conducted a review and evaluation of the study plan of this master's degree modifying the area of Health at Work.

3.1.6 The School of Medicine and its achievements

In order to make the individual research work of the students on their degree theses more efficient and to give greater flexibility to the programs, the study plans of the Ph.D. Degrees in Biomedical Sciences and in Medical Sciences were reformed in order to lead the students through an obligatory tutorial regime and an obligatory credit program. This project was approved by the University Council that same year, that is 1990.

During 1994, however, an academic committee was created with the coordinators of the postgraduate programs offered in the School who drew up guidelines aimed at restructuring the study plans for the Master's Degrees and Ph.D. Degrees in Biomedical Sciences and in Medical Sciences, as well as the Master's Degree in Sociomedical Sciences. The project to generate a unified plan had to be deferred before the imminent approval of changes to the General Postgraduate Studies Regulations.3

The School of Medicine is the cornerstone of Mexican academic medicine. Its centenarian leadership has been built on its capacity for innovation, its spirit of change and its vocation to give a response, from the perspective of universal science, to the social demands of the country through the training of professionals and academics of a high level.

It was the pioneer in creating master's degrees and Ph.D. programs in the biomedical area. In UNAM, it is the only School to have developed programs like the Master's Degree and Ph.D. in Medical Sciences, the Master's Degree in Sociomedical Sciences and the Master's Degree in Medical Education. All these degrees are oriented towards the study of the health-disease process with inter and multidisciplinary approaches.

With respect to the productivity of the postgraduate programs in the School, from 1954 to 1979, 90 students graduated with Master's Degrees in Medicine and, from 1951 to 1978, 25 graduated with Ph.D. Degrees in Medicine. At that time, there was no separation between the biomedical, sociomedical and medical areas. From 1981 to 9 April, 1996, 187 students graduated with Master's Degrees and 67 with Ph.D. Degrees in Biomedical Sciences, 114 with Master's Degrees and 17 with Ph.D. Degrees in Medical Sciences. For its part, 32 students have graduated from the sociomedical area with Master's Degrees: 19 in Epidemiology, 6 in Health at Work, 2 in Statistics Applied to Health. Similarly, 5 have graduated with Master's Degrees in Medical Education. In all 423 students have graduated with Master's Degrees and 109 with Ph.D. Degrees.

These postgraduate programs are of the greatest tradition in the country and constitute a unit that permits the systematic study of the process mentioned above. With this same purpose, the School has for some time been promoting articulation with academic bodies from UNAM itself and with the National Health System, maintaining great prestige in both national and international spheres. An example of the above was its designation on 28 February 1996 by the World Health Organization as Collaborative Center for the Training of Human Resources in Health, a status given only to institutions with the infrastructure and human resources necessary to support the programs of this international agency.

In keeping with its mission as an institution and its will to change, the School desires to strengthen and consolidate its process of academization. As a consequence, it has sought to adapt its master's degrees and Ph.D. programs to the spirit of the General Postgraduate Studies Regulations.

With this purpose in mind, the School included the Master's Degree and Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences in the Doctoral Program in Biomedical Sciences approved on 23 August, 1996 by the Academic Council of the Biological and Health Sciences Area (CAABYS). Similarly, in order to adapt all its master's degrees and doctoral programs to the Regulations mentioned above, it decided to integrate them into the Master's Degrees and Ph.D. Degrees in Medical Sciences and Health Sciences Program approved on 30 May, 1997 by CAABYS, thus complying with transitory article four of these Regulations.4

Furthermore, this Program was strengthened in its initial stage with the participation of two institutes, the Biomedical Research Institute and the Cell Physiology Institute. During the second stage, it has been enhanced by the participation of two other academic organizations, the School of Philosophy and Letters and the School of Dentistry.

Thus, these five academic bodies of UNAM have jointly constituted the present Master's Degree and Ph.D. Degree in Medical, Dental and Health Sciences Program, which was approved by CAABYS on 14 December, 1998.

3.2 Cell Physiology Institute

The Cell Physiology Institute is an academic organization dedicated mainly to basic research. There are five departments that study the principal areas of concern to the Institute: Neurosciences, Biophysics, Cell Biology, Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry. Forty-one full time researchers work in these departments and have formed a vigorous academic group working on a broad variety of research lines.

The Institute participates in the Biomedical Sciences Doctoral Program because, on the one hand, it has solid experience in approaching basic problems in the field of biomedical sciences and because, on the other, several of the research lines it is working on have given rise to aspects closely related to medical sciences.

Similarly, the relevance of its participation in this Program becomes further evident on observing that basic studies have given place to projects approaching experimental models of medical sciences, such as models of myocardial infarction, the study of hormonal action mechanisms, the molecular diagnosis of mitochondrial diseases, studies on alcohol induced acute gastritis, the modulation of insulin secretion, interventionist genetics in cancer, the phenomenon of immunodepression in cysticercosis, the rational design of drugs to combat parasites, the regulation of circadian rhythms, nervous tissue transplants and their clinical effects on diseases such as Parkinson's, pigmentary retinosis, the evaluation of GABA levels in patients with neurological disorders and the role of beta amyloid peptides on Alzheimer's Disease, among others.

The Institute therefore offers postgraduate students interested in experimental sciences a solid academic substrate and the necessary infrastructure to approach frontier problems in biomedicine.

3.3 Biomedical Research Institute

The main objective of the Biomedical Research Institute is to do research into the area of human biology and, in particular, into disease processes. Since 1941, the Institute has generated original research and published numerous works in books and national and foreign specialized journals and journals for general diffusion. It has formed linkages with some of the most important institutions in the health sector, organizing research units with them and preparing highly qualified groups of staff that work in other university and extra-university organizations.

The Institute founded and participates in the Bachelor's Degree, Master's Degree and Ph.D. Degree Programs in Basic Biomedical Research (the latter two have been integrated into the Biomedical Sciences Program), and participated in the Master's Degree and Ph.D. Degree in Physiological Sciences and in programs with other bodies that have produced independent scientific groups and strengthened the academic staff of the Institute, in particular, and of the University, in general.

The Institute closely links the process of research with that of teaching by articulating the research of an established scientist with the efforts of the student and in the students' doing science directly from their own research under the supervision of the tutor. It was pioneer in the training of researchers with the innovation of introducing young, talented high school students into scientific work at an early stage. It was the first center to offer the Academic Program for the Bachelor's Degree, Master's Degree and Ph.D. Degree in Basic Biomedical Research of the Academic Unit of the Professional and Postgraduate Cycles of the Humanities and Sciences College, with a Bachelor's Degree in 1974, a Master's Degree in 1975 and a Ph. D. Degree in 1977. It should be emphasized that from 1990 to 1994, 30 students obtained Ph.D. Degrees in the Institute, 92 Master's Degrees and 19 finished Bachelor's Degrees, while a further 66 students from various schools and colleges in UNAM and other institutions did their Bachelor Degree theses, giving a total of 207 graduates. From 1984 to 1992, the Basic Biomedical Research program (in all its centers) produced 20% of the doctors in exact and natural sciences in the country.

One innovative way the Institute has developed to interact with the health sector has been the creation of peripheral units. Such is the case of the Nutrition Genetics Unit (1980) in the National Pediatrics Institute, the Experimental Tumors Unit (1986) in the National Cancerology Institute and the Human Retrovirus Unit (1992) in the National Epidemiological Diagnosis and Reference Institute. The first two are eminently research units while the latter offers an extremely valuable national diagnosis and reference service on the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome.

In 1995, in order to strengthen these research actions, a collaboration agreement was established with the Federico Gómez Children's Hospital of Mexico in order to study normal and pathological ontogeny and a peripheral unit has been created in the Salvador Zubirán National Nutrition Institute and another in the National Neurology and Neurosurgery Institute. An attempt is also being made to systematically and efficiently interact with researchers from the National Health Institutes through the Health Research Applicative Program (PAIS) that aims to establish interinstitutional and multidisciplinary cooperation projects.

3.4 School of Dentistry

The teaching of dentistry in UNAM, which has been taking place for nearly one century, has the greatest tradition of its kind in the country. For this reason, it has served as model for other dentistry schools in Mexico and Latin America. In this University, a large number of dental surgeons have been trained who have given oral health care to the Mexican population, in both the public and private spheres.

In all this, the School of Dentistry has played a fundamental leading role during this century, contributing also since the nnineteen seventies to the training of human resources with a high academic level. Thus, graduates from its different graduate programs have played outstanding roles in the professional, academic and union spheres as well as in the institutional sphere of oral public health.

It should be pointed out by way of background information that in 1904 the National Dental Teaching Surgery, an annex of the old Medicine School, was created. The surgery was the pioneer institution in dental education in the country. After a long evolution, it took the name National Dental School (ENO) in 1945 to later transform itself in 1975 to the present School of Dentistry of UNAM.

The ENO began to give graduate courses during 1968 with the approval of the specialties in Orthodontics and Parodontics. In 1972, the Master's Degree in Dentistry with an orientation towards Buccal Prothesis was approved and in 1974 so was the Master's Degree in Dentistry with an orientation towards Odontopediatrics.

Also during 1974, study plans were approved for the Specialty in the Teaching of Dentistry and a Master's Degree in Dentistry, both with the following twelve options: Dental Anatomy, Endodontics, Exodontics, Dental Histology, Dental Materials, Stomatologic Medicine, Dental Occlusion, Preventive Dentistry, Dental Operations, Parodontics, Buccal Pathology and Radiology.

By 1975, the first study plan for the Master's Degree in Dentistry with no special orientation had been approved in the following three areas: Dental Materials, Occlusion and Buccal Pathology with which the ENO was transformed into a fully fledged School of Dentistry.

As of 1983, with the approval of the study plan for the Master's Degree in Dentistry with no special orientation, an attempt was made to unify the postgraduate study plans in the School that continued until 1991 when the study plan for the Ph.D. Degree without areas was approved and in 1997 the Sole Plan for Dental Specialties was approved offering ten areas: Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Endodontics, Dental Materials, Odontopediatrics, Orthodontics, Buccal Pathology, Periodontics, Buccal Prothesis, Maxillofacial Prothesis and Oral Public Health.

From 1973 to August 1998, 812 students took Master's Degree studies in the School of Dentistry and 128 took Ph.D. Degree studies, giving a total of 940. Similarly, 300 students graduated with Master's Degrees and 36 with Ph.D. Degrees. The first Master's Degree students graduated in 1975 and the first Ph.D. Degree students in 1981.

 3.5 School of Philosophy and Letters

This academic body has a centuries old tradition in our country. Although its present denomination, School of Philosophy and Letters, dates from 1924, its history dates back to the foundation of the Faculty of Arts of the Royal, Pontifical University of Mexico. Since then it has had a decisive influence on the teaching of humanities and on the shaping of the cultural panorama of Mexico.

In UNAM, the School of Philosophy and Letters and the School of Science are considered to be the mother faculties or founders because they have given birth to other university bodies (particularly, research institutes) which study both scientific and humanistic disciplines.

The School of Philosophy and Letters has been one of the pioneers in the creation of graduate programs in UNAM. At present, it has master's degree and doctoral programs dedicated to various disciplines.

In particular, high level research is done in the Graduate Program in Philosophy on different traditional and present day problems of this discipline. One of the research lines of this graduate course involves the study of problems of practical or applied ethics. Over the last few years, a great stimulus has been given to the promotion of inter and multidisciplinary work among philosophers, doctors and other professionals from the health area that has contributed to the strengthening of the field of Bioethics in UNAM. .

Moreover, other joint academic work has been carried out by the Schools of Philosophy and Letters and Medicine in the graduate degrees in Pedagogy and Medical Education. Similarly, an attempt will be made to foster new inter and multidisciplinary relations among graduates from the Humanities area with the program presented here.