The Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (National Autonomous University of Mexico), a public research institution that focuses both on teaching and research, is ranked number one in Mexico and also ranks highly in the world. It is the largest university in Latin America and has one of the largest campuses in the world with over 360,000 students and with a presence in Mexico’s 32 states. It also has presence in 9 countries, has 34 research institutes, 26 museums, and 18 historic sites. Culture is both important and prevalent throughout UNAM witnessed by the murals across the main campus that were painted by some of the most recognized artists in Mexican history, such as Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros. UNAM was founded on September 22, 1910, and obtained its autonomy from the government in 1929. This means that UNAM has the freedom to establish its own curriculum and manage its budget without government interference. The main campus of UNAM, Ciudad Universitaria (University City), was built as a collaborative architectural design project in the 1950s and, in 2007, was declared UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)
#2UNAM ranked 2nd among Latin American universities in the QS World University Ranking 2022
12,532number of full-time academic faculty at UNAM
92UNAM has signed cooperation agreements with 92 national and international organizations and HEIs in 2019
Research
UNAM has 48 research institutes and centers. More than 25% of the total scientific papers published by Mexican academics come from researchers at UNAM. In 2019 alone, 4,246 specialized articles were published in international journals on scientific research, and 553 books and 1,088 book chapters were published on humanities research. UNAM has a research subsystem dedicated exclusively to science (SIC), which integrates 27 institutes, 7 centers and four university programs grouped into three major areas of knowledge: Chemical-Biological and Health Sciences, Physical-Mathematical Sciences and Earth Sciences and Engineering. In 2019, 1771 researchers and 1392 academic technicians worked at the subsystem's centers and institutes, developing more than 3,000 research projects. In 2018, 90.8 percent of SIC researchers were part of the Mexican National System of Researchers.
Engagement with IU
- IU’s Mexico Gateway is housed within the UNAM Central Campus since 2018, and has helped open doors for IU members to all of UNAM's schools, research institutes, and centers.
- UNAM has a primary agreement and three sub-agreements with IU, which establishes a system-wide faculty exchange. One with the Physics Institute, one with the Anthropology Institute and one graduate exchange agreement.
- The School of Education on the IUB campus is working on a sub agreement with the ENTS (National School of Social Work) which will establish that both entities will collaborate on research and intervention projects with the goal of influencing and reducing risk factors related to incarceration and delinquency in teenagers and young people.
- IU and UNAM’S Physics have created strong research connections that have led to the National Nuclear Summer School, the graduate level summer school for nuclear physics, funded by the US NSF, to be held at the IU Mexico Gateway on the UNAM campus.
