Researcher’s duties at the San Marcos University Faculty of Medicine

Abstract

As a first approach to the university research problem the School of Medicine researchers’ daily work was described. In order to understand the researchers’ performance and their interactions with their fellows and university environment, a qualitative method was used. Forty-two key informants were interviewed. The mean age was 55,5 years (range 38-83 years). The sample included Faculty members in accord to the time spending in university labor, being physicians the main group (64%). Scientific activity began in pregraduate as well as in postgraduate levels. Since the 70s there is not an administrative process in order to incorporate young students in scientific activities. This goes along with the ageing of our current manpower, conveying the risk of reducing even more scientific activities. The institutional relationships among University and researcher are quite complex but its main characteristic is the delay of investigation in favour of immediate tasks as teaching and administrative chores.