Curricular Variables and Topics Studied in Veterinary Immunology Courses at Several Latin American Universities

Abstract

Competencies approach is a strategy advised by academicians, international organizations with competence in education (e.g., UNESCO), and those related to veterinary medicine practice (e.g., OIE [World Organisation for Animal Health, formerly International Office of Epizootics] and PANVET [Pan-American Association for Veterinary Sciences]) to answer society's demands for professionals. In Latin American universities, important initiatives to adopt competencies approach were developed by Tuning América Latina and VINCULAENTORNO (project developed by several international institutions, including IESALC from UNESCO [International Institution for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean] focused on the entailment of universities with their environment, to foster social and economic sustainable development) more than a decade ago. In Venezuela, renewed efforts concerning curricular revision were carried out by academicians, taking into account the recommendations made by peer reviewers, during the accreditation process with ARCU-SUR regarding veterinary programs. The present document explores curricular designs of immunology for veterinary students in different universities to determine common characteristics, in order to obtain valuable information for future curricular plans. Veterinary Immunology courses from 24 universities in six Latin-American countries were examined, searching for common content. Other curricular variables, e.g., instructional models, hours planned for theoretical and laboratory activities, educational credits, position in curricular trees, previous requirements, and implementation dates, were considered. The average ± standard deviation of immunology issues studied among the universities was 31±7.9 of the 63 listed topics, and the similarity was 79.2% (n = 19 courses), but other significant differences and curricular variations were recorded. This article describes novel aspects of curricular facts of this biomedical area in Latin America; these results may be valuable to design future curricular planning and a unified and precise curriculum on veterinary courses.

FIGURE 1

Frequency of different issues in Veterinary Immunology (1 to 63) (see Appendix 2) found on the analyzed documents. Gray area corresponds to the topics present in 75% of the universities.

FIGURE 2

Dendogram of the 24 HEIs surveyed according to the total Veterinary Immunology issues studied (Table 2 and Appendix 2). Cophenetic correlation index = 0.892, cluster analysis by average linkage algorithm or UPGMA, distances calculated with Manhattan or Euclidean models are invariable. Arg = Argentina; Col = Colombia; Ven = Venezuela; Uru = Uruguay; Mex = Mexico; Chil = Chile; HEI = higher-education institution; UPGMA = unweighted pair-group method using an arithmetic average.

FIGURE 3

Dendogram of Veterinary Immunology courses from some Latin American HEIs, considering two variables (TVIIC and CTH, see Table 2). Cophenetic correlation index = 0.811, cluster analysis by average linkage algorithm of UPGMA, distances calculated with Euclidean model. HEI = higher-education institution; TVIIC = total veterinary immunology issues covered; CTH = total hours of the course; UPGMA = unweighted pair-group method using an arithmetic average.