1. INTRODUCTION 
In 1987 the Cartographic Engineering Course (CECart) of UNESP 
(Universidade Estadual Paulista), campus of Presidente 
Prudente-SP, has completed ten years of activities. There was 
not a significant celebration, but these ten years of work 
could not go unnoticed. The lived difficulties have caused an 
experience that if it is reflected properly it will contribute 
to choose a course to future. 
The reading of working group reports of Commission VI reveals 
the effort made by the international photogrammetric community 
in order to survey and to know the educational reality of many 
countries. The sense of this paper is to contribute but 
modestly to this knowledgement, presenting and discussing the 
lived experience by Department of Cartography (DCart) at 
administration of CECart, considering the national and 
international frame. 
2. BRAZILIAN SITUATION 
Brazil is a large country with 8,511,965 km2 of area, that 
represents about 47$ of South America. It is the fifth country 
of the world in extension. There are approximately 82$ of the 
territory mapped at 1:250000 scale; it is estimated about 60$ 
to the scales of 1:50000 and 1:100000 covering the South, 
Southeast and Northeast of Brazil. There are more than 4000 
municipalities, the great number without topographic mapping or 
if itiülexists needy of revision. 
There are about ten great airsurvey companies working mostly to 
federal, state or municipal government agencies. There are 
about 1200 cartographic engineers undergraduated in the last 25 
years. Obviously not all of them working at P&RS. Beside them 
there are other types of engineers disputing in this 
specialized area. At first glance, it seems that P&RS exist in 
Brazil only at the last 25 years, but. that is not true; 'It.is 
said that one of the first engineering existing in the country 
was the cartographic one and the first surveys date to 1940. 
Really the care with surveying and mapping is old (CARVALHO 
I41|). 
In the whole country there are only five courses of 
Cartographic Engineering which meaning is succesfully 
explained by FAGUNDES |6|. Every year circa of 150 students 
enroll themselves at universities in order to course 
Cartographic Engineering. In general, not more than the half 
of them get the graduation in five years, the minimum time 
required in practice to conclude the course. To continue the 
Specialized education is possible at UFPr (Universidade 
Federal do Paraná) that offers MSc and PhD degrees. The 
formation of technicians in the country is neglected, not only 
in P&RS, but also in almost all other areas. In this case, it 
functions the informal education (ANDRADE l2l). 
Nowadays, in Brazil, the quantity of PhD people in 
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