Biotechnology and Development in Nicaragua: How Chemical Engineering Has Contributed to the Impulse for Biotechnology and Vice Versa

This paper aims to determine the contribution of biotechnology to the graduate index in Chemical Engineering at the National University of Engineering and to analyze whether the number of subjects related to biotechnology in the current program of the Chemical Engineer, is sufficient in relation to the number of graduates obtained as an indirect measure of the demands of the student sector and the community of potential employers, considering that in most cases theses are chosen by students in relation to problems in the productive sector. For the realization of this work it was first defined a period of study between 1990 and 2018, gathering information on these carried out in that period, to finally determine in which areas of biotechnology these theses were being carried out and thus determine whether the career program was meeting the students' knowledge demands for the performance of these jobs. The results showed that, out of 322 thesis studies carried out, 59 of these have been on topics related to biotechnology (18.32 %) and have been carried out in areas of industrial biotechnology, environmental and bioengineering. This work showed the urgent need to make changes to the curriculum that will allow to equip the graduates with the biological tools they need to fulfill the expressed in the profile of the graduate of Chemical Engineering.