Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education
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| Official Seal | |
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| Established: | 6 September 1943 [1] |
| Type: | Private multiple-campus university |
| Rector: | Rafael Rangel Sostmann |
| Faculty: | 7,418 (2007) [2] |
| Students: | 91,671 (2007) [2] |
| Undergraduates: | 54,971 (2007) [2] |
| Postgraduates: | 11,586 (2007) [2] |
| Location: | Monterrey, N.L., Mexico 25°39′05″N 100°17′26″W / 25.651435°N 100.290686°WCoordinates: 25°39′05″N 100°17′26″W / 25.651435°N 100.290686°W |
| Campus: | 33 across Mexico; mostly urban [3] |
| Colors: | Blue and white |
| Athletics: | Borregos Salvajes (Rams) |
| Affiliations: | SACS, APRU, Universitas 21, ECIU, ANUIES, CUDI, FIMPES |
| Website: | http://www.itesm.edu |
| High school students account for the difference between its total number of students and the sum of graduate and undergraduate students. | |
The Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, ITESM) commonly shortened as Monterrey Institute of Technology (Tecnológico de Monterrey) or Monterrey Tech (Tec de Monterrey) is one of the largest private, nonsectarian and coeducational multi-campus universities in Latin America with over 91,000 students at the high school, undergraduate, and postgraduate levels.[2] Based in Monterrey, Mexico, the Institute has 33 campuses in 25 cities throughout the country[3] and is known for becoming the first university ever connected to the Internet in Latin America[4] and the Spanish-speaking world,[5] having one of the top graduate business schools in the region[6] and being one of the leaders in patent applications among Mexican universities.[7]
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History
Early years
The Institute was founded on 6 September 1943 by a group of local businessmen led by Eugenio Garza Sada, a moneyed heir of a brewing conglomerate who was interested in creating an institution that could provide highly skilled personnel — both university graduates and technicians— to the booming Monterrey corporations of the 1940s.[8] The group was structured into a non-profit organization called Enseñanza e Investigación Superior A.C. (EISAC) and recruited several academicians led by León Ávalos y Vez, an MIT alumnus and then Director-General of the School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering of the National Polytechnic Institute, who designed its first academic programs and served as its first Director-General.[9]
In its early years the Institute operated at Abasolo 858 Oriente in a large, two-story house located a block and a half away from Zaragoza Square, behind the city's Metropolitan Cathedral.[9] As these facilities soon proved to be insufficient, it started renting out adjacent buildings and by 1945 it became apparent that a university campus was necessary. For that reason, a master plan was commissioned to Enrique de la Mora and on 3 February 1947 what would later be known as its Monterrey Campus was inaugurated by Mexican President Miguel Alemán Valdés.[1]
Because the operations of the local companies were highly reliant on U.S. markets, investments, and technology; internationalization became one of its earliest priorities. In 1950 it became the first foreign university in history to be accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS),[10] one of the six regional accreditation agencies recognized by the United States Department of Education. Its foreign accreditation would end up being a decisive influence in its development, as it was forced to submit itself to external evaluation earlier than most Mexican universities (1961)[10] and unlocked additional sources of revenue, such as tuition funds from foreign students interested in taking summer courses in Mexico for full-academic credit.[10]
[edit] Expansion
Its growth outside the city of Monterrey began in the late-1960s, when both its rector and head of academics lobbied for expansion. A first attempt, funded a few years earlier by several businessmen from Mexicali, Baja California, was staffed and organized by the Institute but faced opposition from the Board of Trustees once the federal government refused any additional subsidy[11] and members of the Board casted doubt on its ability to get funds as an out-of-state university. At the end the project was renamed Centro de Enseñanza Técnica y Superior (CETYS) and grew into a fully independent institution.[9][12]
Aside from the CETYS experiment and the 150 hectares bought in 1951 for the agricultural program's experimental facilities in nearby Apodaca, Nuevo León, no other expansion outside Monterrey was attempted until 1967, when a school of maritime studies was built in the port of Guaymas, Sonora. Shortly thereafter, premises were built in Obregón and courses began to be offered in Mexico City. Those premises and the ones that followed, then called external units, were fully dependant of the Monterrey Campus until 1984, when they were restructured as semi-independent campuses and reorganized in regional rectorates (see Organization).
In 1987, when the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools demanded faculty members with doctorate degrees to lecture 25% of its undergraduate and 100% of its postgraduate courses,[10] the Institute invested considerably in both distance learning and computer network technologies and training, effectively becoming, on 1 February 1989, the first university ever connected to the Internet in both Latin America[4] and the Spanish-speaking world.[5] Such efforts contributed to the creation of its Virtual University a few years later and allowed it to become the first country-code top level domain registry in Mexico; first by itself from 1989 to 1995, and then as a major shareholder of NIC Mexico, the current national registry.[13]
Campuses
There are thirty-three campuses of the Institute distributed in twenty-five Mexican cities. Each campus is relatively independent but shares a national academic curriculum (see Academics). The flagship campus is located in Monterrey, where the national, system-wide rectorate is located. Most of them deliver both high school and undergraduate education, some offer postgraduate programs and only five (Cumbres, Eugenio Garza Sada, Eugenio Garza Lagüera, Santa Catarina and Valle Alto) deliver high school courses exclusively. Nevertheless, Virtual University curricular and extension courses and seminars are usually available at most facilities.
Campuses by region
As of 2008[update], campuses were divided in the following Mexican regions:[3]
- Greater Monterrey: Monterrey, Cumbres, Eugenio Garza Lagüera, Eugenio Garza Sada, Santa Catarina, Valle Alto.
- Greater Mexico City: Mexico City, Santa Fe.
- North: Aguascalientes, Chihuahua, Ciudad Juárez, Laguna, Saltillo, San Luis Potosí, Tampico, Zacatecas.
- Central: State of México, Querétaro, Toluca.
- South: Veracruz Central, Chiapas, Cuernavaca, Hidalgo, Morelia, Puebla.
- West: Obregón, Colima, Guadalajara, Irapuato, León, Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Northern Sonora.
According to CNN-Expansión, the Institute is planning to build a new Campus in China.[14]
Other infrastructure
In addition to the campuses, the Institute manages:
- The Ignacio A. Santos Medical School, the Hospital San José and the US$ 150 million Zambrano-Hellion Medical Center (due for completion in 2010).[15]
- 1430 reception sites for its Virtual University broadcasts across Latin America.[16]
- Twelve international sites in Colombia (Bogotá, Medellín), Ecuador (Guayaquil and Quito), Panama (Panama City), Peru (Lima) and the United States (Miami) offering extension courses, research and international consulting.[3]
- Thirteen liaison offices in charge of forging international partnerships and negotiating professional internships and academic exchanges with local universities, companies and civil institutions. Current liaison offices are located in Belgium (Brussels), Canada (Montreal and Vancouver), China (Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai), France (Paris), Germany (Fribourg), Spain (Barcelona and Madrid) and United States (Boston, Dallas and Washington, D.C.)[3]
Organization
All campuses are sponsored by non-profit organizations composed primarily of local businesspeople. The Monterrey Campus is sponsored by Enseñanza e Investigación Superior, A.C. (EISAC), which co-sponsored the system as a whole until a newly built organization, Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, A.C. (ITESMAC) overtook those responsibilities.[12] Such organizations (effectively serving as boards of trustees) are responsible for electing the rectors or directors of a particular campus. Since 1997, the president of ITESMAC is Lorenzo Zambrano, a class of 1966 alumnus and current head of Cemex, the World's third largest cement producer. Former presidents include the founder, Eugenio Garza Sada (1943 – 1973) and his son, Eugenio Garza Lagüera (1973 – 1997), who both served as chairman of the board of what would later be called FEMSA, Latin America's largest bottling group.
Internally, a system-wide rectorate based in Monterrey oversee six regional rectorates that supervise all campuses nationwide and several vice-rectorates attending internal affairs. Since 1985, the system-wide rector is Rafael Rangel Sostmann, a class of 1965 alumnus. Former heads of the Institute include:
- León Ávalos y Vez (1943 – 1947) first director-general.
- Roberto Guajardo Suárez (1947 – 1951) second director-general.
- Víctor Bravo Ahuja (1951 – 1958) third director-general and from April 1955, first rector.
- Fernando García Roel (1959 – 1984) second rector.
High schools
Following the historical practice of Mexico's largest universities,[17] the Institute sponsors several high schools that share one or more national curricula: bilingual, bicultural and/or International Baccalaureate, which is administered by the International Baccalaureate Organization based in Geneva, Switzerland.[18] As of 2008[update], over 25,000 students in several campuses were registered as high school students within the system.[2]
TecMilenio University
The TecMilenio University (Universidad TecMilenio) is a private institution of higher education sponsored by the Institute and specialized in both corporate training and short degree programs. Founded in 2002 in order to provide a cheaper alternative to the high costs involved at pursuing a degree at the Institute and, purportedly, to fend-off foreign for-profit schools that have entered the country in recent years,[19] the university serves some 21,000 students at high school, undergraduate and postgraduate levels; frequently through online courses. As of 2009[update], TecMilenio was training personnel of companies such as the Philips, H-E-B, BBVA Bancomer and Cemex.[20]
Virtual University
The Virtual University (Universidad Virtual) delivers most of the Institute's distance education courses, conferences and seminars. It broadcasts from either Monterrey or State of Mexico campuses to some 1430 reception sites across Latin America[16] and has developed several social programs in partnership with the World Bank Institute[21] and The Nature Conservancy.[22] As of 2008[update] every postgraduate program (except for the two most recently created) are accredited as Level 1 (the highest) by the Inter-Institutional Committees for Higher Education Evaluation[23] (see Accreditations).
Academics
Academically, the university is organized into several departments and divisions —as opposed to the traditional faculty school scheme used by most Mexican public universities— and it was the first Mexican university in history to divide the academic year in semesters (which used to run from February to June and from September to January) and to offer summer courses.[12] Current academic calendar for both high school and undergraduate students is composed of two semesters running from August to December and from January to May (each lasting between 15 to 16 weeks) and an optional summer session from June to July, where at most two courses can be taken in an intensive basis. As of 2009[update], undergraduate degrees are generally awarded after nine semesters of study (except for Medicine); master's degrees generally last three to four semesters (and can be structured in three-months terms) while doctorate degrees vary in length according to their academic field.
Admissions
Since 1969 the Institute requires every college applicant to achieve a minimum pass mark at an academic aptitude test (Prueba de Aptitud Académica, PAA) delivered by The College Board, a not-for-profit examination board in the United States.[24] However, each campus is free to request additional requirements; such as a grade average of 80 or 90 in high school (on a 100-point scale) for those willing to transfer or apply to the Monterrey Campus.[25] As of January 2008[update], 50% of the freshman class at the Monterrey Campus had an average grade of 90 and 25% had an average grade of 95 out of 100 at high school level.[26] As for the graduate schools, the requirements may vary according to the discipline, such as a grade average of 80/100 and 550-points in both the GMAT and the TOEFL for some programs at its Graduate Business School (EGADE).[27]
Accreditations
Studies at the Tech are officially accredited by the Secretariat of Public Education of Mexico (Secretaría de Educación Pública, SEP) and by both the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS)[28] and the Department of Education in the United States. On November 2008, its graduate business school (EGADE) became 1 of the 34 business schools in the world to hold simultaneous accreditation of its programs by the AACSB of the United States, the Association of MBAs of the United Kingdom and the European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS)[29] while the Institute became the first Latin American university in history to receive full-accreditation on some of its engineering programs (as opposed to the traditional substantially-equivalent designation given to most schools outside the United States) by ABET.[30] The quality of its programs is also audited by the Institute of Food Technologists, the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management and by the national accrediting councils of Mexico, such as the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (Consejo para la Acreditación de la Educación Superior, COPAES) and the Inter-Institutional Committees for Higher Education Evaluation (Comités Interinstitucionales de Evaluación de la Educación Superior, CIEES).[31]
Academic memberships
The Institute is the only Latin American institution at the European Consortium of Innovative Universities (ECIU) —an organization committed to innovations in both teaching and learning[32]— and at Universitas 21; an international network of research-intensive universities established as an "international reference point and resource for strategic thinking on issues of global significance."[33] It is also the only Mexican university, along the National Autonomous University of Mexico, to be enrolled at the Association of Pacific Rim Universities, an international consortium of leading research universities including Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley and Caltech.[34] The Institute was also the first private university to become a member of the National Association of Universities and Institutions of Higher Education of Mexico (ANUIES) back when it was composed entirely by public universities (1958)[10] and is a full member of the Mexican Federation of Private Institutions of Higher Education (Federación de Instituciones Mexicanas Particulares de Educación Superior, FIMPES).
Faculty
The Institute has over 7,418 professors at high school, undergraduate and postgraduate levels: 32% full-time and 68% part-time; 49% have at least a master's degree, 25% a doctorate degree[2] and 100% have the appropriate academic credentials to lecture at the corresponding academic level according to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.[35] As for their academic development, its faculty training program was bestowed with the 2004 Andrew Heiskell Award for Innovation in International Education by the Institute of International Education.[36]
[edit] Rankings
Overall, the Institute is the only Mexican university besides the National Autonomous University of Mexico to be ranked at the 2008 THES - QS World University Rankings, in which it was classified #38 worldwide at its 2008 Employer's Review[37] and #328 worldwide at its complete ranking.[38] In the 2008 Professional Ranking of World Universities, developed by the École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris, it ranked 212 out of 347 worldwide.[39]
Among its graduate schools, EGADE has been ranked 7th among the best business schools outside the United States according to the Wall Street Journal (2006),[40] 4th in the world in business ethics and social-responsibility programs according to BusinessWeek magazine (2005),[41] among the 100 best graduate business schools in the world by the Economist Intelligence Unit (2005)[42] and its OneMBA program, delivered in partnership with four different institutions (see Joint programs and international partnerships below) was ranked 27 worldwide by the Financial Times in its 2008 Executive Master in Business Administration rankings.[43]
Joint programs and international partnerships
Some of its academic programs are offered as joint degrees or in partnership with foreign universities:
- Its Master of Science in Information Technology is offered as a joint degree with Carnegie-Mellon University,[44] which is ranked 4th for graduate studies in computer science in 2008 according to US News and World Report and 7th in Engineering/Technology and Computer Sciences among Shanghai Jiao Tong University's world's top 100 universities.[45]
- The OneMBA degree is offered through a partnership with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Rotterdam School of Management of the Netherlands, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Getulio Vargas Foundation of Brazil and is ranked 27 worldwide among executive MBAs by the Financial Times.[43]
- The Global MBA for Latin American Managers is offered in partnership with the Thunderbird School of Global Management, which has been ranked consistently by US News & World Report as the #1 school in International Management since 1995.[46]
- The medical degree is offered as a dual Ph.D. program with the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences of the Texas A&M Health Science Center.[47]
- An International MBA program is offered as a joint degree with the University of San Diego.
- The Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Global Business and Strategy (MBA-GBS) is a double degree MBA program jointly offered by the Graduate School of Business Administration and Leadership (EGADE) at the Tecnológico de Monterrey, Campus Monterrey, and the Belk College of Business (Belk College) at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.[48]
- The bachelor degrees in Chemical Engineering are offered as joint degrees with the Reutlingen University of Germany.[49]
- Several high schools offer the International Baccalaureate Diploma, which is administered by the Geneva-based International Baccalaureate Organization.[18]
Research
Although some of the founding members of its faculty were prominent researchers (first rector León Ávalos y Vez had formed a National Commission on Science and served as Director-General of the School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering of the National Polytechnic Institute) formal research activities at the Tech did not start until 1951, when its Institute of Industrial Research was founded in close collaboration with the Southwest Research Institute of San Antonio, Texas —one of the oldest and largest independent, nonprofit, applied research and development organizations in the United States.
Notwithstanding some reputable achievements, throughout most of the 20th century its research activities —normally financed independently or under private sponsorship— were rather scarce in comparison to public universities such as the National Autonomous University of Mexico or the National Polytechnic Institute, whose budgets make up to 30% of the federal spending in higher education and, as such, are heavily financed by the government through the federal budget.[50]
Despite its inherent difficulties to secure research funds in a developing country where private sponsorship barely accounts for 1.1% of the national spending on science,[51] a new institutional mission in 2005 made social and scientific research in Mexico's strategic areas one of its top priorities for the next decade. As a result, new corporate endowments and funds were committed, new research programs were created (including the first research program financed by Google in Latin America)[52] and important labs and infrastructure are being built, such as the US$ 43 million Femsa Biotechnology Center,[53] the Water Center for Latin America and the Caribbean (financed by the Inter-American Development Bank and the Femsa Foundation),[54] the US$ 15 million Cemex International Center for Advanced Learning, the Motorola Research and Development Center on Home & Networks Mobility[55] and the first center of chemical micro process engineering in Latin America.[56]
Additionally, the Institute developed a researcher-friendly patent scheme that aims at attracting talented researchers and reduce the national brain drain. The scheme, in which the researcher may receive up to 30% of the patent licencing income,[57] works in combination with its internal MXN$ 100,000 Rómulo Garza Prize and its national MXN$ 200,000 Luis Elizondo Prize and has allow it to became one of the leading patent applicants among Mexican universities since 2006.[7]
Student Life
Student life, traditions and activities vary notably among campuses. Generally speaking, student involvement is encouraged by the local campus through an office of student affairs, which supervises most of the student clubs, regional associations and its student federation.
The Institute goes great lengths to provide scholarships to those in need, awarding partial financial assistance to up to 45% of its student population.[2] However, with tuition fees of almost US$ 12,000 per academic year[59] (among the highest in Latin America according to Forbes magazine)[60] most of its student community comes from upper and upper-middle class and the overall atmosphere is arguably politically and socially conservative. For example, there are no official LGBT student clubs or associations and some staff in the Mexico City Campus has publicly admonished students for questioning conservative politicians during school visits[61] (although no disciplinary action was ever taken).[62]
The number of international students vary notably among campuses. As of January 2008[update], some 1,100 foreign students from 56 countries were studying in the Monterrey Campus, half of them as regular students.[26]
Athletics
The Tech has a good record in college athletics, picking up over 18% of the medals at the 2007 national collegiate competition (Universiada)[63] and one of its campuses has won every single American Football Collegiate Championship in Mexico (ONEFA) since 1998.[58] Such accomplishments have been possible through the Institute's investments in sports facilities and personnel and a well-funded and comprehensive athletic scholarships program, which attracts a significant number of promising athletes but has prompted allegations of talent drain by some of its rivals.[64]
Although there are local adaptations, since 1945 the system-wide sports mascot is the ram (borrego salvaje), traditionally embodied in a male bighorn sheep.
Residence halls
Some of the campuses offer residence halls inside or nearby the Institute. The halls are segregated by sex, forbid opposite-sex visits and require attendance to be taken daily at 10:00 p.m. in women's dormitories.[65]
Noted people
The Institute has graduated prominent and influential members in several areas, particularly among the Latin American business community. From December 2006 to January 2009 both the U.S. Secretary of Commerce and the Mexican Secretary of Economy (former Kelloggs' CEO Carlos Gutiérrez[66] and Gerardo Ruiz Mateos[67]) were Tech alumni. Other businesspeople include Cemex' CEO Lorenzo Zambrano,[68] FEMSA's CEO José Antonio Fernández Carbajal,[69] Grupo Salinas' CEO Ricardo Salinas Pliego[70] and Casa Cuervo's CEO Juan Beckman.[71]
In science and technology, Alexander Balankin, former lecturer at the Mexico City Campus,[72] has received the 2005 UNESCO Science Prize for his works on Fractal Mechanics; Ernesto Enkerlin received UNESCO's 2005 Sultan Qaboos Prize for Environmental Preservation for his involvement in sustainability[73] and two alumni have been members of the United States President's Information Technology Advisory Committee: Pedro Celis (Distinguished Engineer at Microsoft) and Héctor García Molina, former Director of Stanford University's Computer Science Department, 1999 ACM SIGMOD Innovations Award[74] and highest h-index in Computer Science.[75]
In politics, at least two late presidential candidates and democracy activists, Luis Donaldo Colosio and Manuel Clouthier, were former graduates and over a dozen Mexican governors and cabinet members have attended classes at the Tech, including former Secretary of Commerce and North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) negotiator Herminio Blanco. In cultural affairs, Gabriel Zaid has distinguished himself as one of the leading Mexican intellectuals of the 20th Century and in sports Fernando Platas and Victor Estrada have both won Olympics medals, while former coach of Mexico's national football team, Miguel Mejía Barón, is in charge of the Football Department at Puebla.[76]
As for staff and faculty, at least three rectors or directors of different universities have been lecturers or members of the staff at the Tech: Victor Bravo Ahuja, former Director-General of the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN); former Secretary of Economy and Foreign Relations, Luis Ernesto Derbez at the University of the Americas, Puebla and Enrique Cabrero Mendoza at CIDE. In addition, current rector Rafael Rangel Sostmann is member of the External Advisory Council of the World Bank Institute.
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