[Basis for designing a medical course curriculum]

This article sets forth the reasons for the structure given to the Division of Biology and Health on the Xochimilco campus of Metropolitan Autonomous University in Mexico: to adjust the university to the process of social change going forward in the country and gear the university to the problems of the present by avoiding the rigidity of its structure. The basic aspects of curriculum design are cited against a background of an historical analysis of the socioeconomic structure of education and health. The principles underlying the curriculum and the course work are then described on the basis of that analysis.