[Education in public health in 2005. Prospects for strategic planning, progress and perspectives]

The program of Master of Arts in Public Health, one of the academic programmes of the School of Public Health of Mexico, has been through a continuous process of assessment and redesign since january 1988. This process is based on the following aspects: diagnosis of the general academic situation in 1985; re-definition of the Schools' objective; design of the academic and administrative modernization process; creation of the area of Academic Programmes, and development of a project on Prospective Planning in Education in Public health to 2005. The first diagnosis of the programme showed problems within the sequence and integration of its curricular contents as well as a lack of coherence between the objectives established and the expected graduates profile. Matters such as population and environmental health were almost not considered. Through on active participation of the whole faculty, a first redesign of the programme was done. After its implementation the programme went into an evaluation process, which showed that most of the problems were solved. The remaining were eliminated through another assessment process, which final outcome was the 1989 program. As it can be seen, the programme has been going through a continuous process of review and updating. The next phase within this process will come one the project on Prospective Planning in Education in Public Health to 2005 is finished.