[Responsibility of universities in the scientific education of our professionals]

The universities have a leading role and responsibility in the scientific education of future professionals. Scientific research training should be considered essential in the teaching of professionals in areas such as biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics and in medicine. During the recent years, Chilean universities seem to have focused their undergraduate curricular activities into pragmatic aspects of professional practice and the relevance of involving undergraduate students in high-level scientific research receives little consideration. While resources provided by the government to scientific and technological research in Chile are slowly but gradually increasing, the participation of undergraduate students in specific research projects conducted by faculty members is minimal. The author proposes that this situation could be modified if the students are stimulated to participate in these research projects by receiving preferential scores when their elective activities are devoted to it.