The impact of the Cabanis reform on the historical formation of the Argentine university and on higher education in health

Abstract

In this essay, we seek to evaluate the impact of the Cabanis reform on the configuration of the health education model that became hegemonic in Argentina. First, we analyze the restructuring of the French educational system triggered by the revolution of 1789, primarily in its political and institutional dimensions. Second, we briefly discuss the process of the social, ideological and institutional reconstruction of the health system in post-revolutionary France. Third, we introduce the Cabanis reform, a proposal for medical education based on professionalism, disciplinarity and specialization that resulted in a higher education system without universities, looking into its main curricular and pedagogical aspects. Finally, we evaluate the sequence of events and processes that, throughout the 19th century, with strong Cabanisian influence through the Idéologie, shaped both the principal features of teaching health and medicine and the higher education model based on faculties currently predominant in the Argentine Republic.