My poorly timed visit (first day of Christmas vacation) to the large public University of Panama was limited but informative.
The physics program is very small, with approximately 10 students working towards a Licenciatura and no masters program. The professors do not get paid to do research. 100% of the salary goes towards teaching, and of course the level of research being done suffers or doesn't exist.
Most interestingly, visiting professors do come to instruct fourth year students for a month or two, but also keep up the contract once back in their home country (for physics, Spain, Mexico, Germany and Switzerland were mentioned, but this applies to the other sciences as well) by streaming some of their lectures live from their home countries.
On a more global and standardized scale, this is an important approach that I hope to see implemented and it was a thrill to see this new initiative taking place in Panama. Linking these and other students up with more developed programs in the region could help better prepare them for higher-level work and free up time for their professors to do research. The professors could subsequently be linked to other researchers and upper-level instruction through similar or more advanced video-streaming and conferencing. The mentality to do this seems to already be in place at this particular institution.
