Research universities?

qgrande

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Jul 27, 2005
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I get the impression that most Universities in the Dominincan Republic, both the good and the not so good ones, tend to offer the more vocational kind of studies (medicine, law, business, etc.), and most of the faculty spend most of their time on teaching. Are there any universities that to any degree can be called research universities? What percentage of their time are University staff at best able to spend on research? Do scholars at Dominican universities publish internationally?
 

SamGompers

New member
Mar 14, 2004
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Great question. La UASD is by far the most elite university in DR - - though the most august university in the Caribe is University of Havana. La UASD is a research university - - although due to funding, brain drain, and other factors - - not to the extent of a U.S. research university. Most faculty are not paid well by U.S. standards, and most - -whether in public or private higher ed - - spend most of their time teaching. Dominican scholars do publish internationally - - though again, due to lack of support, not to the extent or in the kinds of areas U.S. research faculty would.

If you want a pretty good overview of the Dominican academic scene, check out this article by Josefina Pimental of UASD and former D.R. undersecretary of education - - published in Academe the magazine of the American Association of Professors: http://www.aaup.org/publications/Academe/2002/02mj/02mjpim.htm

Lol . .I played some role in getting the piece into print . . .and have since adopted Caribbean/Latin American higher ed as one of my avocations . .
 

qgrande

Bronze
Jul 27, 2005
805
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Very interesting article, although it paints a pretty bleak picture of Dominican Universities as research institutes. I'm a bit surprised reading that UASD is the most elite university, because of negative comments elsewhere on the forum. Because of this I'm also a bit surprised noone else replied. Is PUCMM to any degree a research institute?