[Considerations on graduate education of sanitary engineering in Latin America].

The author reviews the profound process of change in Latin America which presents serious problems for environmental engineering and, consequently, for education in the various disciplines that comprise this specialization. The explosive growth of knowledge and the increase responsibilities of professionals place extreme pressure on engineering schools. These schools are forced to consider curricular changes as well as changes in admission policies and in the image and the service which they should present to society. At the present time, 25 engineering schools offer an "option" of sanitary engineering and 12 schools offer graduate courses for an M.A. in environmental engineering. In the schools themselves, a combination of fulltime and part-time professors prevails. Graduate teaching programs are expected to provide: a) increasingly complex, new scientific and technologic knowledge, b) duly selected disciplines; and c) balanced management techniques. Certain plans of action may be considered. Among these are increasing the number of schools that offer graduate courses, revising curricula, encouraging higher enrollment, including research as a standard element in teaching and, in general, seeking higher standards of excellent. Prospects for the future seem to indicate that the following actions should be taken: 1) increasing interdisciplinary programs; 2) making use of the potential offered by continuing education; and 3) encouraging the development of doctoral studies.