Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM; English: Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education), also known as Tecnológico de Monterrey or just Tec, is a privateresearch university based in Monterrey, Mexico, which has grown to include 35 campuses throughout the country.[4]
The institute was founded on September 6, 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.[12] 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.[13][page needed]
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.[13][page needed] 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 February 3, 1947, what would later be known as its Monterrey Campus was inaugurated by Mexican PresidentMiguel Alemán Valdés.[1][page needed]
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),[14][page needed] 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 (1967)[14][page needed] and unlocked additional sources of revenue, such as tuition funds from foreign students interested in taking summer courses in Mexico for full-academic credit.[14][page needed]
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[15] and members of the Board cast 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.[13][page needed][16][page needed]
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 dependent on the Monterrey Campus until 1984, when they were restructured as semi-independent campuses and reorganized in regional rectorates (see Organization).[citation needed]
In 1987, when the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools demanded faculty members with master's degrees to lecture 100% of its undergraduate courses,[17] the Institute invested considerably in both distance learning and computer network technologies and training, effectively becoming, on February 1, 1989, the first university ever connected to the Internet in both Latin America[7] and the Spanish-speaking world.[8] Such efforts contributed to the creation of its former 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.[18]
Campuses
The institute has campuses in twenty-five Mexican cities (see: Campuses by region)
There are thirty-one 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 eight (Cumbres, Eugenio Garza Sada, Eugenio Garza Lagüera, Santa Catarina, Metepec, Santa Anita, Esmeralda and Valle Alto) deliver high school courses exclusively. Nevertheless, curricular and extension courses and seminars are usually available at most facilities.[citation needed]
Campuses by region
ITESM Mexico City Campus - CEDETEC building
Former campuses include Celaya (Prepa Tec, closed in 2020), Veracruz (closed in 2021), Guaymas (transferred to TecMilenio University in the early 2000s) and Mazatlán (transferred to TecMilenio University in 2009).[19]
North: Monterrey, PrepaTec Cumbres, PrepaTec Eugenio Garza Lagüera, PrepaTec Eugenio Garza Sada, Prepa Tec Santa Catarina, PrepaTec Valle Alto, Aguascalientes, Chihuahua, Ciudad Juárez, Laguna, Saltillo, Tampico and Zacatecas.
Centro:Mexico City, Santa Fe, State of Mexico, PrepaTec Esmeralda, Toluca
West: Colima, Guadalajara, Irapuato, León, Morelia, PrepaTec Navojoa, Northern Sonora, Obregón, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, PrepaTec Santa Anita and Sinaloa.
ITESM - Santa Fe CampusITESM - Puebla City CampusITESM - Queretaro City CampusThe Innovation and Technical and Technology Transfer Park (PIT3) at Chihuahua Campus.
As of June 2019, campuses were divided into the following Mexican regions:[20]
Other infrastructure
In addition to the campuses, the Institute manages:
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. (ITESM AC) overtook those responsibilities.[16][page needed] Such organizations (effectively serving as boards of trustees) are responsible for electing the rectors or directors of a particular campus. Since February 2012, the president of ITESMAC is José Antonio Fernández, a class of 1976 alumnus and current chairman and CEO of FEMSA.[23][24] Former presidents include the founder, Eugenio Garza Sada (1943–73) and his son, Eugenio Garza Lagüera (1973–97), and Lorenzo Zambrano (1997–2012), a class of 1966 alumnus and until his passing.[25]
Salvador Alva (2011–2019) fourth rector and Executive President.[29]
Since 2020, The Tecnológico de Monterrey Rector and Executive President is David Garza Salazar.
High schools
Following the historical trend of Mexico's largest universities,[30] the Institute sponsors several high schools which are united under the name "HighPoint International School". This high schools share one or more national curricula: bicultural, multicultural and/or International Baccalaureate, which is administered from Geneva, Switzerland.[31] The bicultural focuses on better understanding of the English language, the multicultural program requires studying a third language and to have an exchange program abroad. Finally, the IB is an academically challenging program where students can obtain the IB Diploma when they graduate. Additionally, students can receive college credits both at the TEC and universities abroad.[32][failed verification] Multicultural students are able to take IB courses if they wish with the focus on obtaining IB Subject Certificates. As of December 2017[update], over 26,000 students in several campuses were registered as high school students within the system.[3]
Academics
The oldest academic building in the Monterrey Campus, Aulas I, and the towers of the Center of Advanced Production Technology (CETEC), which house several research centers
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. 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 16 weeks) and an optional summer session from June to July, where at most two courses can be taken in an intensive basis.[citation needed]
As of 2010[update], the institute offers 57 undergraduate degrees, of which 37 are taught in English and are generally awarded after nine semesters of study (except for Medicine and Architecture);[3] 33 master's degrees, generally lasting three to five semesters (and can also be structured in three-months terms),[3] and 11 doctorate degrees varying in length according to their academic field.[3]
Admissions
Since 1969 the Institute requires every college applicant to achieve a minimum pass mark at an academic aptitude test which is 900 out of 1600. (Prueba de Aptitud Académica, PAA) delivered by The College Board, a not-for-profit examination board in the United States.[33] 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.[34] 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).[35]
Accreditations
The International Center for Advanced Learning (CIAP)
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).[39]
As of 2017[update], 169 undergraduate degrees were accredited by national accrediting councils and 36 were accredited by international accrediting agencies.[3] As for graduate degrees, 11 were accredited by international accrediting agencies and 58 were listed in the National Census of High-Quality Postgraduate Studies (Padrón Nacional de Posgrados de Calidad, PNPC) by the National Council for Science and Technology (CONACYT).[3]
The institute has over 10,000 professors at high school, undergraduate and postgraduate levels: 2,207 tenured and 7,900 associated professors, and all of them have the appropriate academic credentials to lecture at their corresponding academic level according to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.[3] As of 2017[update] some 470 professors taught courses, worked in international projects or attended seminars or congresses at foreign universities while some 590 foreign professors taught courses at the institute.[3] 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.[45]
Student-created video documenting Tec's collaboration with Wikipedia
This article needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (September 2020)
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,[59] which is ranked 4th for graduate studies in computer science in 2008 according to U.S. News & World Report and 7th in Engineering/Technology and Computer Sciences among Shanghai Jiao Tong University's world's top 100 universities.[60]
The B.A. Finance and Accounting is offered as a joint degree with the University of Texas at Austin, Master in Professional Accounting, ranked #1 Graduate Accounting School in the U.S. by U.S. News & World Report since 2007.[62]
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.[65]
The Ignacio A. Santos School of Medicine (Escuela de Medicina Ignacio A. Santos, aka: EMIS) is the medical school division of the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM). Established in 1978 in Monterrey, Mexico.[68]
The School of Medicine was founded to satisfy the country's need for high quality medical training and innovation in biomedical research. Currently, there are approximately 500 students enrolled in the M.D. program and about 105 postgraduate students. Aside from the medical doctor program, the School of Medicine also offers a joint M.D.-Ph.D. program with Houston Methodist Hospital, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Texas A&M Health Science Center, and other Bachelors in Biosciences, Nutrition Sciences and Biomedical Engineering. The graduate medical education department offers several medical residency and fellowship programs.[11] The general director of the TecSalud organization is Guillermo Torre M.D. PhD, a cardiologist who trained under Michael E. DeBakey MD at Baylor College of Medicine.[69][70]
TecSalud TecSalud.
Research
Biotechnology Center Research LaboratoriesIts FEMSA Biotechnology Center (left) is the leading source of patent applications among its research centers[71] In 2008 the institute was the leading patent applicant among Mexican universities[72] and generated three times as many international patents as its closest competitors.[73]
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 institute 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.[74]
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.[75]
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,[76] 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)[77] and important labs and infrastructure have been built, such as the US$ 43 million Femsa Biotechnology Center,[78] the Water Center for Latin America and the Caribbean (financed by the Inter-American Development Bank and the Femsa Foundation),[79] the Motorola Research and Development Center on Home & Networks Mobility,[80] its MXN $24 million Center for Advanced Design at the Guadalajara Campus[81] and, in association with the Mainz Institute of Microtechnology of Germany (IMM), the first center of chemical micro process engineering in Latin America.[82]
Additionally, the Institute developed a researcher-friendly patent scheme that aims to attract talented researchers and reduce the national brain drain. The scheme, in which the researcher may receive up to 30% of the patent licensing income,[83] works in combination with its internal MXN$ 100,000Rómulo Garza Prize and its national MXN$ 200,000Luis Elizondo Prize and has allowed it to become the leading patent applicant among Mexican universities since 2006.[10]
Student life, traditions and activities vary among campuses. Generally speaking, student involvement is encouraged by the local campus through an office of student affairs and the Department of Leadership and Student Formation (LiFE), which supervises most of the student groups, sports teams, regional associations and its student federation (FETEC).
The Institute goes to great lengths to provide scholarships to those in need, awarding partial financial assistance to 49% of its student population.[3] However, with tuition fees exceeding MXN $200,000 per academic year[85] (among the highest in Latin America according to Forbes magazine)[86] most of its student community comes from upper and upper-middle class and the overall atmosphere is arguably politically and socially conservative. For example, opposite-sex visits are forbidden in dormitories unless it is in common areas and some high school staff in the Mexico City Campus has publicly admonished students for questioning conservative politicians during school visits[87] (although no disciplinary action was ever taken).[88]
The number of international students vary notably among campuses. As of December 2017[update], 4,714 foreign students were studying in one of its campuses while 10,618 Tech students were taking courses in a foreign university.[3]
Tec has a good record in college athletics, picking up over 18% of the medals at the 2007 national collegiate competition (Universiada)[92] and one of its campuses won every American Football Collegiate Championship in Mexico (ONEFA) from 1998 to 2008.[84] Such accomplishments were possible through the institute's investments in sports facilities and personnel and a well-funded and comprehensive athletic scholarships program, which attracted a significant number of promising athletes but prompted allegations of talent drain by some of its rivals.[93] Before the 2009 season the Institute decided to part ways with the organization and create a new league;[94] however, the league didn't materialize after other breakaway universities decided to remain in the ONEFA.[95] The Institute asked to return to the organization, but the ONEFA Board decided that the request should be formally presented in its next ordinary meeting, after the 2009 season,[96] which its four teams ended up playing between themselves in a Tech-only championship.[97] For the 2010 season, the Institute decided not to participate in the ONEFA championship and, instead, asked the CONADEIP, a national athletic association of private educational institutions, to create an American football championship.[98]
Although there are local adaptations, since 1945 the system-wide sports mascot is the ram (borrego salvaje), traditionally embodied in a male bighorn sheep. A somewhat popular urban legend states that the mascot was chosen by the American football team on its way to a match, after spotting a male sheep on the road. According to the official sources, however, the mascot was chosen during an official contest held by students in the mid-1940s.[14]
^Elizondo Elizondo, Ricardo (2000). Setenta veces siete (in Spanish). Monterrey, Mexico: Ediciones Castillo. pp. 25–26. ISBN978-970-20-0098-3. OCLC46366375. Retrieved July 4, 2008. Circula la versión – errónea, pero compartida por muchos – de que surgió como escuela técnica y evolucionó hasta convertirse en universidad. También es falsa la suposición de que se desarrolló siguiendo el modelo del Instituto Tecnológico de Massachusetts, alma mater de don Eugenio Garza Sada, el promotor de la idea y uno de sus fundadores. En realidad, el proyecto nació de la visión de un grupo de empresarios consciente de la necesidad de preparar dentro del país a los profesionistas que se requerían para la construcción del México moderno…El país contaba entonces con capital y también con mano de obra, pero no con personal que estuviera calificado para encargarse de la supervisión y la administración de la planta industrial: en una palabra, faltaban los mandos intermedios, mismos que, a su vez, deberían conocer las características de la cultura mexicana. Era indispensable que los profesionistas que requerían las empresas de casa se educaran en casa; eso sí, a condición de que tanto la educación como los graduados fueran de calidad equiparable a lo que se ofrecía fuera de México.
^Gómez Junco, Horacio (1997). Desde adentro (in Spanish). Monterrey, Mexico: Fondo Estatal para la Cultura y las Artes de Nuevo León. p. 178. ISBN978-970-18-0056-0. OCLC44019433. Retrieved July 4, 2008. [E]l exrector del Tec, Víctor Bravo Ahuja, entonces subsecretario de Educación Pública, prometió un subsidio para la naciente escuela, siempre y cuando no llevara el nombre del Tecnológico de Monterrey. No era conveniente, decía, pues eran los tiempos en que el gobierno federal todavía mostraba franca animadversión en contra del Grupo Monterrey
^ abGómez Junco, Horacio (1997). Desde adentro (in Spanish). Monterrey, Mexico: Fondo Estatal para la Cultura y las Artes de Nuevo León. ISBN978-970-18-0056-0. OCLC44019433. Retrieved July 4, 2008.
^Cruz Limón, Carlos (2002). "The Virtual University:Customized Education in a Nutshell". In Paul S. Goodman (ed.). Technology enhanced learning: opportunities for change. Mahwah, N.J., U.S.A.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. p. 186. ISBN0-8058-3666-7. OCLC248568356. Retrieved September 10, 2009. The SACS required that all professors have at least a master's degree, which at the time was not the case at ITESM on a systemwide basis. Due to the multicampus structure of ITESM, not every campus had the academic programs necessary for their professors to earn a master's degree on-site. Therefore, ITESM opted to use satellite technology to give all undergraduate professors the opportunity to pursue a graduate degree and thereby satisfy the requirements set forth by the SACS.
^ abcReyes Salcido, Edgardo (March 4, 2009). "Muere Fernando García Roel". El Porvenir (in Spanish). Monterrey, Mexico. Archived from the original on July 21, 2011. Retrieved October 9, 2009.
^Gómez Junco, Horacio (1997). Desde adentro (in Spanish). Monterrey, Mexico: Fondo Estatal para la Cultura y las Artes de Nuevo León. p. 23. ISBN978-970-18-0056-0. OCLC44019433. Retrieved July 4, 2008.
^Guerra, Raymundo (February 28, 2008). "Ofrecen doble titulación a IQs"(PDF) (in Spanish). Panorama. p. 9. Archived from the original(PDF) on October 3, 2008. Retrieved July 7, 2008.
^Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey: Décimo Aniversario 1943–1953 (in Spanish). Monterrey: Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey. January 1954. p. 26. OCLC19450249. "Fue creado bajo patrocinio de Enseñanza e Investigación Superior, y está afiliado al Southwest Research Institute, centro de investigaciones norteamericano.
^"El Estadio Tecnológico" (in Spanish). Terra Networks. September 12, 2008. Retrieved July 10, 2009.
^"Celebra 60 aniversario"(PDF). Semanario Panorama (Tecnológico de Monterrey). Archived from the original(PDF) on July 22, 2011. Retrieved July 10, 2010.
^"FIFA World Cup: Venues"(PDF). Fédération Internationale de Football Association. Archived from the original(PDF) on January 19, 2012. Retrieved July 10, 2009.
^"Alexander Balankin CV". Escuela Superior de Ingeniería Mecánica y Eléctrica (IPN). Archived from the original on October 5, 2008. Retrieved September 1, 2008.
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