Mexico’s National Autonomous University ranked No. 100 in the world

June 10, 2020

unam — UNAM has made efforts 'to become a more global institution.'

For the first time ever a Mexican university has been ranked in the top 100 in the world by QS World University Rankings.

The organization, which claims to be the “world’s most-consulted, most-covered source of comparative information about university performance,” has ranked the National Autonomous University (UNAM) as No. 100 of the top institutes of higher learning around the globe.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford and Harvard topped the list in that order. The highest-ranked university in Latin America was Argentina’s University of Buenos Aires, which came in at No. 66.

The second-best university in Mexico, the Tec de Monterrey (ITESM), came in at 155th place, moving up three in the rankings since last year and marking its ninth consecutive year of improvement.

Schools are assessed by their academic reputation, employer reputation, facility to student ratio, citations per faculty, international faculty ratio and international student ratio. ITESM’s rise is primarily due to a 28-place jump in the employer reputation indicator, which measures how each institution is viewed by academics worldwide.

unam rankings — How the National Autonomous University has ranked since 2012.

The ranking organization’s director of research, Ben Sowter, applauded the Mexican universities’ progress. “The rise of UNAM and ITESM has not been accidental. ITESM has highlighted the provision of world-class teaching in its institutional strategy, which has helped cultivate its outstanding consideration among employers,” Sowter said.

“UNAM has also made credible efforts to become a more global institution, a strategy that involves future improvements in academic recognition and research performance. This is a deserved, decisive moment for Mexican higher education.”