HIGHER EDUCATION IN MEXICO AND COMPARISON OF INDICATORS OF FOUR PUBLIC HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

We review the planning of higher education in Mexico in the last decades. Mexico has increased its enrolment in higher education institutions from 10 000 students in 1930 up to more than 3.733 million students in 2014. The coverage in higher education in Mexico is around 33% and the Federal Government is planning to increase it up to 40% by the year 2018. The percentage of students in public universities in Mexico decreased; in 1980 half of the students studied in public universities, currently 4/10 of the students study in public universities and 3/10 in private universities. The Mexican government does not build enough public higher education institutions. Because of that, low quality private higher education institutions have proliferated. Most of the students cannot afford to study in good quality private higher education institutions. The Federal Government does not provide constant yearly increments in funding to all pubic federal higher education institutions. More than 7.5 youngsters neither study nor work. We also review the impact of the Mexican education policies in the admission and enrolment of students in four higher education public institutions: the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM), the Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN) and the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México (UAEM) in the last several years. Technology development is minimal in higher education institutions in Mexico. The number of patents granted to these institutions is very small and they are rarely commercialized; for example, the royalties to the UAM for its patents at the end of the year 2013 was of zero pesos.

References:
[1] ANUIES. (2010). Anuarios Estadísticos. http://www.anuies.mx/servicios/p_anuies/publicaciones/revsup/res120/art7.htm. In Spanish.
[2] Díaz, A., Barrón, C. and Díaz, F. (2008). Impacto de la evaluación en la educación superior mexicana, un estudio en las universidades públicas estatales. México D. F., México: UNAM, ANUIES, Plaza y Valdés. In Spanish.
[3] Domínguez, N. and Monroy, M. ( 2010, December). Desarrollo tecnológico y Educación Superior en México. Este País, 236, 17-19. In Spanish.