Diagnosis of the current situation of Graduate study in Agricultural Engineering in Brazil

Abstract

Agricultural Engineering was created with the objective of looking for solutions to technological problems related to the field. Thus, the professional in this area needs to acquire knowledge from the various classical fields of engineering, as well as from the fields of Agronomy and the Biological Sciences. This interdisciplinary emphasis may make evaluations based on homogeneous, disciplinary criteria less appropriate and efficient for these Programs and provoke distortions that do not favor program quality. The principal objective of this paper, therefore, was to provide a quantitative and qualitative diagnosis of the Masters and Doctoral degree Programs in Agricultural Engineering of the country, seeking to contribute to an enlarged vision of the area and to the identification of the contribution of these Programs within their respective contexts.