ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SCIENTIFIC AND ACADEMIC STRUCTURES IN LATIN-AMERICA

This paper briefly examines the concepts and history of three intellectual structures (science, academic degrees and degree dissertations), and makes a proposal: that there is, or there ought to be, a significant concordance among those entities. Science structure is defined as a set composed basically by two main processes (research and theory construction, the latter being the highest of them) and two main products (technique and consolidated science), all of them built on the so-called scientific method. In regard to the academic degree structure it is observed that, particularly in the case of Latin America, there exists a tendency for it to be integrated by four levels or degrees (licentiature or professional title, specialization, master degree, and the doctorate), each of them having specific scientific and educational objectives and functions. And, concerning dissertation papers they could also be ranked into four categories: monographs, designs or plans, research reports and doctoral thesis. Levels of such structures are defined, analyzed and compared, which leads to the conclusion that in a rational and coherent university system there must be a non deterministic but truly positive relationship among them.