Abstract:
An appraisal of the ordainment of graduate courses aiming at Master and Doctor degrees in Medicine in Brazil, is presented, taking into account their ascribed significance in support of medical research.
The quantitative favourable results are counterbalanced by the main following piftalls: a) the enforcement of a closed and self-contained system of graduate studies, without regard to previous and proven competence in research, which is inefficient or insensitive to a continuous selection of “the best fit, leading to valorize titled, rather than well formed, non orthodox, trainees; b) the social and cultural inadequacy of the imported model, with a falacious adaptation of the graduate system, and consequent fictitiousness and elitism; c) the ruling, and scientifically undesirable, interference of agencies for planning, distribution and administration of research grants and funds, emphasizing irrelevant goals and favouring formal and gigantic aspects of projects, rather than their scientific, economic or social merits; d) the ineffectual and obsolescent administrative network at universities and effector institutions, lacking flexibility to the needs of research work in a destitute and unfavourable environment.