Abstract:

The Mexican Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM), a public university, began classes in 1974 and attended 60,865 students in 2021 [1]. The average age of its permanent professors increased almost linearly from the year 2003 to the year 2021, and the seniority of those professors increased proportionally to their average age [1], with a linear correlation coefficient between the two variables of 0.995. The average age of permanent professors in 2003 was 50.2 years, and it increased to 60.0 years in 2021, while the average seniority was 17.8 and 27.6 years, respectively. The number of permanent professors increased from 2,815 in 2003 to 3,124 in 2014 and then decreased to 2,915 in 2021. The number of professors over 70 in 2003 was 42, while in 2021 it was 504 [1]. The number of professors with seniority larger than 40 years was 492 in 2021 [1]. On the other hand, the federal subsidy that the University has received each year from the Mexican Government in constant pesos has not changed appreciably since 2009 [2]; in fact, it has decreased by 11.33 percent since 2015. Lately, the hiring of permanent professors has been reduced in such a way that in 2021 only 2.9 percent of permanent professors had a seniority of up to 5 years. The aging faculty population might bring severe problems because the university has to make more payments for benefits associated with seniority and severance payments at the same time that the federal budget remains constant or decreases in real terms. To alleviate this last problem, the authorities have decided to cut part of one of the economic stimuli for professors; however, another solution would be to reduce the high economic bonuses, compensations, and incentives for officials. On the other hand, because the hiring of permanent professors has been reduced to a minimum, there is a risk that the educational model of the UAM will fail because it is a researcher-professor model in which they teach and conduct research, and only temporary professors who would not conduct research would be hired. The UAM needs better planning because this problem has been anticipated for years and it is only now that attempts are being made to alleviate it. Another problem that arises is that the professors are getting old and if things continue like this, in the year 2031, the average age of teachers will be 65 years old in a country where life expectancy is around 71 years. Based on the available information, some scenarios are being built and possible solutions are being proposed that could solve the budget problem, as well as not compromising the historical educational model of the UAM.

References:
[1] UAM, Anuario estadístico 2021, 2022. Retrieved from https://transparencia.uam.mx/inforganos/anuarios/index.html
[2] UAM, Presupuesto de ingresos y egresos 2022. December 2022. Retrived from https://transparencia.uam.mx/presupuesto/presup2022/Presupuesto-de-Ingresos-y-Egresos-2022.pdf

Keywords:

Educational model, planning, higher education, faculty.