The University of Buenos Aires is the largest university in Argentina. It is a national university. It doesn´t have a single campus. The University is divided in schools (facultades) which have some degree of independence. Professors from each school only teach students from the same school. Schools are spread all over the city of Buenos Aires (a city of over 3 million people, 11 million if the suburbs are included). The School of Exact and Natural Sciences (Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales) offers the following careers: Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Computer Science, Geology, Meteorology, Oceanography plus some other shorter ones. This is the only school in the Buenos Aires city area where students can study to become physicists. The plan for undergraduate studies is supposed to take five years, although in most cases it takes much longer. After finishing these studies, the students obtain the title of "Licenciado en Física" (a title that is closer to a Master than to a Bachelor degree of an American university. It involves doing some research at the end). The School also offers an "intermediate" title which involves taking fewer courses than those required for a Licenciado (very few students choose to do this) and the career of Professor in Physics (which prepares the students to teach at middle and high schools). Students can also do their PhD in Physics at this School. The Physics Department of the School of Exact and Natural Sciences is a rather large department, with full-time and part-time professors. Full-time professors do their research in the Department, while part-time professors do their research somewhere else within the Buenos Aires city area (including the National Atomic Energy Commision and various research institutes of our National Research Council, CONICET). Other schools of the University of Buenos Aires have their own Physics Departments. Physicists also work at some of these departments. Professors of these departments teach Physics to students of careers other than Physics. In particular, there is a Physics Department at the School of Engineering with groups that do basic and applied research in Physics.
We include here the information we
have collected about Physics students and Physicists at the School of Exact
and Natural Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires. This information
has been collected by Mirta Gil, a professor at the Physics Department
of this School.
Licenciatura (undergraduate studies):
1) Each year, approximately 100 students
start the career, 30% of whom are women. We list below the number of registered
students during the last 11 years.
Year of registration
|
Number of
registered students
Total (men/women)
|
1990
|
163 (116/47)
|
1991
|
127(75/32)
|
1992
|
128(88/40)
|
1993
|
127(81/46)
|
1994
|
83(54/29)
|
1995
|
87(64/23)
|
1996
|
120(78/42)
|
1997
|
103(64/39)
|
1998
|
77(62/15)
|
1999
|
99(73/26)
|
2000
|
91(61/30)
|
2) Each year, approximately 40 students
finish their careers obtaining the degree of Licenciado, women comprise
about 35% of this total.
A total of 488 students obtained
their degree of "Licenciado en Física" during the last 11 years.
36.7% of this total finished their careers in 8 years or less, 22%
in 7 years or less and 8.4% in 6 years or less. Among these groups, women
represent a 31%, 27% and 8%, respectively. We list below the
number of students that obtained their undergraduate degree over the past
11 years:
Year of graduation
|
Number of
students that graduated
Total
(men/women)
|
Career duration
(up
to 8 years) Total (men/women)
|
Career duration
(up
to 7 years) Total (men/women)
|
Career duration
(up
to 6 years) Total (men/women)
|
1990
|
34(26/08)
|
11
(08/3)
|
5
(05/0)
|
1
(1/0)
|
1991
|
54(36/18)
|
17
(12/5)
|
9
(08/1)
|
7
(6/1)
|
1992
|
45(27/18)
|
17
(12/5)
|
17
(12/5)
|
7
(4/3)
|
1993
|
44(27/17)
|
19
(14/5)
|
12
(08/4)
|
3
(3/0)
|
1994
|
36(23/13)
|
17
(13/4)
|
5
(04/1)
|
1
(1/0)
|
1995
|
46(29/17)
|
11
(07/4)
|
5
(03/2)
|
1
(1/0)
|
1996
*
|
63(45/18)
|
15
(11/4)
|
14
(10/4)
|
6
(4/2)
|
1997
*
|
62(37/25)
|
24
(16/8)
|
18
(12/6)
|
7
(6/1)
|
1998
|
34(22/12)
|
21
(12/9)
|
11
(08/3)
|
5
(4/1)
|
1999
|
27(20/07)
|
14
(11/3)
|
6
(06/0)
|
3
(3/0)
|
2000
|
43(27/16)
|
13
(07/6)
|
6
(03/3)
|
0
(0/0)
|
* A larger number
of students graduated during these years because it was the last chance
that students that followed the "old" career curriculum had to graduate.
PhD in Physics (graduate studies)
1)Currently there are 99 graduate students doing their PhD in Physics at the School of Exact and Natural Sciences, 30% of whom are women.
2)Approximately 15 students obtain their PhD in Physics each year. 40% of this total are women.
We list here the total number of
students that obtained their PhD during the last 11 years:
Year of graduation
|
Number of
PhD recipients
Total (men/women)
|
1990
|
23
(10/13)
|
1991
|
13
(09/04)
|
1992
|
15
(07/08)
|
1993
|
10
(08/02)
|
1994
|
17
(09/08)
|
1995
|
11
(08/03)
|
1996
|
13
(08/05)
|
1997
|
18
(08/10)
|
1998
|
17
(12/05)
|
1999
|
21
(12/09)
|
2000
|
13
(11/02)
|
Professors and teaching assistants at the Physics Department:
The Faculy of the Physics Department of the School of Exact and Natural Sciences is composed by 62 professors. There are also 117 teaching assistants (with at least the degree of Licenciado) that work at the Department. These numbers include both full and part-time professors and assistants.
Here we list the total number of
professors at the Physics Department:
Position
|
Number Total
(men/women)
|
Prof. Emérito
(Emeritus)
|
1(1/0)
|
Prof. Consulto
|
1(1/0)
|
Prof. Titular
(Full Professor)
|
14(13/1)
|
Prof. Asociado
(Associate Professor)
|
17(14/3)
|
Prof. Adjunto
(Assistant Professor)
|
29(19/10)
|
Female professors comprise 22.6 % of the total Faculty, although most of them correspond to the lowest position (assistant professor, 34.5%).
Within teaching assistants, women comprise 35% of the total number.