Framework Service Contract No EAC/02/10

EAC/C.4/JC/DL D(2011) 1109949; 18 October 2011

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Final ReportComparative Study between the EU and Mexico on the challenges brought about by the internationalisation of higher education and the transparency tools developed on both sides to facilitate mobility and academic cooperation

30 September 2012

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF ACRONYMS.........................................................................................................................................3

METHODOLOGICAL INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................................10

I. THE MEXICAN HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM...............................................................................................12

1. GOVERNMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY IN THE GOVERNANCE OF HIGHER EDUCATION ...............................................................122. HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS AND NETWORKS...................................................................................................16 3. CURRENT PRIORITIES IN MEXICAN HIGHER EDUCATION POLICY .....................................................................................234. MEXICAN HIGHER EDUCATION AND INTERNATIONALISATION........................................................................................29

ASSURANCE AND TRANSPARENCY TOOLS MEXICAN EDUCATION ..............................34II. QUALITY IN HIGHER

1. OVERALL STRUCTURE OF THE MEXICAN QUALITY ASSURANCE SYSTEM ...........................................................................34 1.1. Procedures and agencies in Mexican quality assurance........................................................................34

1.2. International university rankings...........................................................................................................38

1.3. Mexicos participation in Latin Americas quality assurance.................................................................39

2. TOOLS FOR TRANSPARENCY IN CREDIT RECOGNITION AND QUALIFICATIONS.....................................................................41 2.1. Recognition of foreign credentials (Revalidacin) .................................................................................42

2.2. Credit system and credit transfer ..........................................................................................................452.3. Recognition of Prior Learning ................................................................................................................462.4. Diploma Supplement ............................................................................................................................ 47

3. RECENT MEASURES TO CONSOLIDATEMEXICOS QA AND TRANSPARENCY TOOLS ............................................................46 3.1. Recent developments in Quality Assurance: the COCOEES ...................................................................463.2. The SEPs new agenda for transparency in higher education................................................................49

III. HIGHER EDUCATION COOPERATION AND MOBILITY BETWEEN THE EU AND MEXICO55

1. FRAMEWORK FOR EU-MEXICAN HIGHER EDUCATION COOPERATION/MOBILITY ..............................................................55 1.1. Strategic Partnership between the EU and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).............................56

1.2. The EU-Mexico Strategic Partnership....................................................................................................58

1.3. Cooperation between Mexico and individual EU countries ...................................................................61

2. MAPPING ............................................................................................OF MOBILITY AND COLLABORATIVE ACTIVITIES 62 2.1. Mobility flows between Mexico and the EU ..........................................................................................622.2. Collaborative projects and activities .....................................................................................................64

3. THE EXPERIENCE OFMEXICAN AND EUROPEAN PARTICIPANTS .....................................................................................70 3.1. Experience with Quality Assurance .......................................................................................................713.2. Experience with credits and recognition................................................................................................72

3.3. Experience with qualification frameworks ............................................................................................743.4. Other relevant experience .....................................................................................................................75

IV. FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS.......................................................................................................76

1. MAIN FINDINGS .................................................................................................................................................76 2. RECOMMENDATIONS ..........................................................................................................................................78

BIBLIOGRAPHY..............................................................................................................................................82

ANNEX: CASE STUDIES OF 15 EU MEMBER STATES ........................................................................................84

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LIST OF ACRONYMS

1. English acronyms

Englishacronym

English Spanish translation

ACA Academic CooperationAssociation

Asociacin de Cooperacin Acadmica

APEC Asia-Pacific EconomicCooperation

Foro de Cooperacin Econmica Asia-Pacfico

APL Accreditation of Prior Learning Acreditacin de aprendizaje previoBFUG Bologna Follow-up Group Grupo de Seguimiento del Proceso de

BoloniaCHEPS Centre for Higher Education

Policy StudiesCentro de Estudios sobre Polticas deEducacin Superior

CODOC Cooperation on DoctoralEducation between Africa, Asia,Latin America and Europe

Cooperacin en Educacin Doctoralentre frica, Asia, Amrica Latina yEuropa

CONAHEC Consortium for North AmericanHigher Education Collaboration

Consorcio para la Colaboracin de laEducacin Superior en Amrica delNorte

CSP Country Strategic Paper Documento de Estrategia PasDG Directorate-General Direccin GeneralEAIE European Association for

International EducationAsociacin Europea para la EducacinInternacional

ECA European Consortium forAccreditation

Consorcio Europeo de Acreditacin

ECTS European Credit TransferSystem

Sistema Europeo de Transferencia deCrditos

EFMD European Foundation forManagement Development

Fundacin Europea para el Desarrollode la Gestin

EHEA European Higher EducationArea

Espacio Europeo de Educacin Superior(EEES)

ELGATE European-Latin AmericanUniversity Cooperation Gate

Puerta de Cooperacin Universitariaentre Europa y Amrica Latina

ENHSA European Network of Heads ofSchools of Architecture

Red Europea de Decanos de Facultadesde Arquitectura

ENQA European Association forQuality Assurance in HigherEducation

Asociacin Europea para la Garanta dela Calidad de la Educacin Superior

EQF European QualificationsFramework

Marco Europeo de Cualificaciones

EQAR European Quality AssuranceRegister for Higher Education

Registro Europeo de Calidad para laEducacin Superior

ESMU European Centre for StrategicManagement of Universities

Centro Europeo para la GestinEstratgica de las Universidades

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EU European Union Unin EuropeaEU27 European Union of 27 Member

StatesUnin Europea de 27 EstadosMiembros

EU32 EU27 + Switzerland, Iceland,Liechtenstein, Norway, Turkey

UE27 + Suiza, Islandia, Liechtenstein,Noruega, Turqua

EUA European UniversityAssociation

Asociacin Europea de Universidades

EU-STEP Study Tour European HigherEducation Programme

Programa de Viajes de Estudioreferidos a la Educacin SuperiorEuropea

GER Gross Enrolment Ratio Cociente de Matrcula NetaGDP Gross Domestic Product Producto Interno BrutoHEI Higher Education Institution Institucin de Educacin SuperiorIIE Institute of International

EducationInstituto de Educacin Internacional

INQAAHE International Network forQuality Assurance Agencies inHigher Education

Red Internacional de Agencias para elAseguramiento de la Calidad de la Educacin Superior

ISCED International StandardClassification of Education

Clasificacin Internacional Normalizada de la Educacin

ISEKI Integrating Safety andEnvironment Knowledge InFood towards EuropeanSustainable Development

Integrando Conocimientos deSeguridad y Medio Ambiente enAlimentos hacia un DesarrolloSostenible Europeo

LAC Latin America and Caribbean Amrica Latina y el CaribeMOVINTER Enhancing Virtual Mobility to

foster Institutional Cooperationand Internationalisation ofCurricula

Mejora de la Movilidad Virtual para promover la Cooperacin Institucionaly la Internacionalizacin de los Planesde Estudios

NAFSA Association of InternationalEducators (1948-1964 NationalAssociation of Foreign Student Advisers; 1964-1990 NationalAssociation for Foreign Student Affairs)

Asociacin de EducadoresInternacionales (1948-1964 AsociacinNacional de Asesores de EstudiantesInternacionales; 1984-1990 AsociacinNacional de Asuntos de EstudiantesInternacionales)

NAFTA North American Free TradeAgreement

Tratado de Libre Comercio de Amrica del Norte

NARIC National Academic RecognitionInformation Centre

Centro Nacional de Informacin deReconocimiento Acadmico

NETACTIVE Network AIESAD-EADTU Credit Transfer In Virtual and distanceEducation

Red AIESAD-EADTU Transferencia deCrditos en Educacin Virtual y aDistancia

NUFFIC Netherlands UniversitiesFoundation for InternationalCooperation

Fundacin Universitaria de los PasesBajos para la Cooperacin Internacional

NQF National QualificationsFramework

Marco Nacional de Cualificaciones

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NTC National Tuning Centre Centro Nacional TuningOECD Organisation for Economic Co-

operation and DevelopmentOrganizacin para la Cooperacin y elDesarrollo Econmico

PISA Programme for InternationalStudent Assessment

Programa para la EvaluacinInternacional de los Estudiantes

PPP Purchasing Power Parity Paridad del Poder AdquisitivoPROFLEX The Flexible Professional in the

Knowledge SocietyEl Profesional Flexible en la Sociedaddel Conocimiento

QA Quality Assurance Aseguramiento de la CalidadRPL Recognition of Prior Learning Reconocimiento del Aprendizaje PrevioSEFI European Society for

Engineering EducationSociedad Europea para la Formacin deIngenieros

UK United Kingdom Reino UnidoUNESCO United Nations Educational,

Scientific and CulturalOrganization

Organizacin de las Naciones Unidaspara la Educacin, la Ciencia y la Cultura

UNICA Network of Universities fromthe Capitals of Europe

Red de Universidades de las Capitalesde Europa

UOE UNESCO Institute of Statistics /OECD / Eurostat (StatisticalOffice of the European Union)

UNESCO Instituto de Estadsticas /OCDE / Eurostat (Oficina Estadstica dela Unin Europea)

US United States Estados UnidosUSA United States of America Estados Unidos de AmricaUSD United States Dollar Dlar de los Estados Unidos

2. Spanish acronyms

Spanishacronym

Spanish English translation

ALBAN Amrica Latina Becas de AltoNivel

High level scholarships to LatinAmerica

ALC Amrica Latina y el Caribe Latin America and CaribbeanALCUE rea Comn de Educacin

Superior entre Amrica Latina,el Caribe y la Unin Europea

Common Area of Higher Educationbetween Latin America, the Caribbeanand the European Union

ALFA Amrica Latina FormacinAcadmica

Latin America Academic Training

ALPES Alianza por la EducacinSuperior

Higher Education Alliance

AMPEI Asociacin Mexicana para la Educacin Internacional

Mexican Association for InternationalEducation

ANUIES Asociacin Nacional deUniversidades e Institucionesde Educacin Superior

National Association of Universitiesand Higher Education Institutions

ANUP Asociacin Nacional deUniversidades Politcnicas

National Association of TechnicalUniversities

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ANUT Asociacin Nacional deUniversidades Tecnolgicas

National Association of TechnologicalUniversities

ARCU-SUR Acreditacin Regional deCarreras Universitarias para elMERCOSUR

Regional Accreditation of UniversityDegrees for MERCOSUR

ASEAN Asociacin de Naciones del Sudeste Asitico

Association of Southeast Asian Nations

ASCUN Asociacin Colombiana deUniversidades

Colombian Association of Universities

CAT Complemento al Ttulo Diploma SupplementCELAC Comunidad de Estados de

Latinoamrica y el CaribeCommunity of Latin American andCaribbean States

CENEVAL Centro Nacional de Evaluacinpara la Educacin Superior

National Evaluation Center for HigherEducation

CIDE Centro de Investigacin yDocencia Econmicas

Center for Research and Teaching inEconomics

CIEES Comits Interinstitucionalespara la Evaluacin de la Educacin Superior

Inter-institutional Committees for theEvaluation of Higher Education

CINDA Centro Interuniversitario deDesarrollo

Interuniversity Development Center

COCOEES Comisin de Coordinacin delos Organismos de Evaluacinde la Educacin Superior

Commission for the Coordination ofHigher Education EvaluationOrganisations

COEPES Comisin Estatal dePlanificacin de la EducacinSuperior

State Commission for Higher EducationPlanning

CONACYT Consejo Nacional de Ciencia yTecnologa

National Council of Science andTechnology

CONAEVA Comisin Nacional deEvaluacin de la EducacinSuperior

National Commission for theEvaluation of Higher Education

COPAES Consejo para la Acreditacin de la Educacin Superior

Council for the Accreditation of HigherEducation

COREDIAL Convenio Regional deConvalidacin de Estudios,Ttulos y Diplomas deEducacin Superior enAmrica Latina y el Caribe

Regional Convention on theRecognition of Studies, Diplomas andDegrees in Higher Education in LatinAmerica and the Caribbean

CUIB Consejo UniversitarioIberoamericano

Iberoamerican University Council

CUMEX Consorcio de UniversidadesMexicanas

Consortium of Mexican Universities

CUPRIA Consejo de UniversidadesParticulares e InstitucionesAfines

Council of Private Universities andSimilar Institutions

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DGAIR Direccin General deAcreditacin, Incorporacin yRevalidacin

General Directorate of Accreditation,Incorporation and Revalidation

DF Distrito Federal Federal DistrictDRA. Doctora DoctorECEST Espacio Comn de Educacin

Superior TecnolgicoCommon Area of Technological HigherEducation

EGEL Examen General de Egreso deLicenciatura

General Examination for theUndergraduate Degree

ENLACES Espacio de encuentrolatinoamericano y caribeo deeducacin superior

Latin American and Caribbean HigherEducation Area

EXANI Examen Nacional de Ingreso National Examination for AdmissionFIMPES Federacin de Instituciones

Mexicanas Particulares deEducacin Superior

Federation of Mexican Private HigherEducation Institutions

FLACSO Facultad Latinoamericana deCiencias Sociales

Latin American Faculty of SocialSciences

IES Institucin de EducacinSuperior

Higher Education Institution

IESALC Instituto internacional para la Educacin Superior enAmerica Latina y el Caribe

International Institute for HigherEducation in Latin America and theCaribbean

INFOACES Sistema Integral deInformacin sobre lasInstituciones de EducacinSuperior de Amrica Latina para el rea Comn deEducacin Superior conEuropa

Integral Information System on HigherEducation Institutions in Latin America for a Common Area of HigherEducation with Europe

INNOVAPYME Programa de Apoyo a la Innovacin Tecnolgica deAlto Valor Agregado

Programme to support High ValueAdded Technological Innovation

INNOVATEC Programa de InnovacinTecnolgica para la Competitividad

Technological Innovation forCompetitiveness Programme

IPN Instituto Politcnico Nacional National Technical InstituteITAM Instituto Tecnolgico

Autnomo de MxicoAutonomous Technological Institute ofMexico

ITESM Instituto Tecnolgico y deEstudios Superiores deMonterrey

Monterrey Institute of Technology andHigher Education

LIC. Licenciado/Licenciada Holder of a university degree(Licenciatura)

MERCOSUR Mercado Comn del Sur Common Market of the South

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MESALC Mapa de la EducacinSuperior en Amrica Latina yel Caribe

Map of Higher Education in LatinAmerica and the Caribbean

MEXA Mecanismo Experimental deAcreditacin Regional delMERCOSUR

Experimental Mechanism of RegionalAccreditation within MERCOSUR

MTRO. Maestro Holder of a Master DegreeOBREAL Observatorio de las

Relaciones Unin Europea Amrica Latina

Observatory on EU-Latin AmericanRelations

PAN Partido Accin Nacional National Action PartyPIFI Programa Integral de

Fortalecimiento InstitucionalComprehensive Programme forInstitutional Strengthening

PNPC Programa Nacional dePosgrados de Calidad

National Programme for High QualityPostgraduate Studies

PRI Partido RevolucionarioInstitucional

Institutional Revolutionary Party

PROINNOVA Programe de Desarrollo eInnovacin en TecnologasPrecursoras

Programme of Development andInnovation in Precursor Technologies

PROMEP Programa de Mejoramientodel Profesorado

Programme for the Improvement ofTeaching Staff

RIACES Red Iberoamericana para la Acreditacin de la Calidad dela Educacin Superior

Iberoamerican Network for theAccreditation of Higher EducationQuality

RODAC Registro Oficial deDocumentos Acadmicos

Official Register of AcademicDocumentos

RSA Reconocimiento de SaberesAdquiridos

Recognition of Prior Knowledge

RVOE Reconocimiento de Validez Oficial de Estudios

Recognition of Official Validity ofStudies

SATCA Sistema de Asignacin yTransferencia de CrditosAcadmicos

System of Assignment and Transfer ofAcademic Credits

SEES Subsistema para Evaluar la Educacin Superior

Subsystem for Higher EducationEvaluation

SEM Sector Educativo delMercosur

Mercosur Education Sector

SEP Secretara de EducacinPblica

Secretariat of Public Education

SES Subsecretara de EducacinSuperior

Subsecreatariat of Higher Education

SICA Sistema de CrditosAcadmicos

Academic Credit System

SINCREE Sistema Nacional de Crditos,Revalidacin y Equivalencia deEstudios

National System of Credits,Recognition and Equivalency of Studies

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SNEAS Sistema Nacional deEvaluacin y Acreditacin dela Educacin Superior

National System of Higher EducationEvaluation and Accreditation

SNI Sistema Nacional deInvestigadores

National System of Researchers

TSU Tcnico Superior Universitario Holder of a Higher Technician DiplomaUAM-A Universidad Autnoma

Metropolitana deAzcapotzalco

Autonomous Metropolitan UniversityAzcapotzalco

UDLAP Universidad de las AmricasPuebla

University of the Americas Puebla

UE Unin Europea European UnionUEALC 6x4 Unin Europea, Amrica

Latina y Caribe: seisprofesiones en cuatro ejes deanlisis

European Union, Latin America and theCarribean: six professions in four axesaxis of analysis

UNAM Universidad NacionalAutnoma de Mxico

National Autonomous University ofMexico

UPV Universidad Politcnica deValencia

Technical University of Valencia

VALUE Vinculacin y valorizacinmutua entre Universidades deAmrica Latina y de la UninEuropea

Links and mutual valorisation amongLatin American and EuropeanUniversities

VertebrALCUE Condiciones de viabilidad para un modelo vertebrador en elrea Comn de EducacinSuperior entre LatinoAmrica, El Caribe y la UninEuropea

Feasibility conditions for avertebrating model for the CommonArea of Higher Education betweenLatin America, the Caribbean and theEuropean Union

3. Acronyms in other languages

Acronym Original language English translation Spanish translationDAAD (German)

DeutscherAkademischerAustauschdienst

German AcademicExchange Service

Servicio Alemn deIntercambio Acadmico

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METHODOLOGICAL INTRODUCTION

This study has been carried out by ESMU and ECORYS for the European Commission (DGEducation and Culture) within the framework of the Policy Dialogue between theCommission and Mexico. It is based on extensive desk research on higher education inMexico and in the EU and its Member States, a series of interviews with stakeholders onboth sides, and invaluable input from Mexican officials and experts.

The present report owes an enormous deal to the exceptional cooperation with, and thecontributions received from Mexican colleagues. Our thanks go in particular:

- to the Federal Ministry of Education of Mexico (Secretara de Educacin Pblica SEP), especially to the Directorate General for Accreditation, Authorisation andRecognition (Direccin General de Acreditacin, Incorporacin y Revalidacin DGAIR); Mtro. Guillermo Pablo Lpez Andrade, Director General of DGAIR, is also arecognised international expert in quality assurance in higher education; among staffmembers of DGAIR who have also made substantial contributions to this report, inparticular Lic. Juan Ramn Nieto Quezada, Lic. Isaac Bueno Peralta y Lic. Karina Cisneros Merlin;

- to the Universidad de las Amricas Puebla (UDLAP), one of Mexicos most internationalised universities, especially to Dr. Diana Debora Bank Guzmn, who wasappointed by the DGAIR for the purpose of the preparation of the present report,and to the team of researchers who worked with her (Dr. Elizabeth Salamanca Pacheco, Dr. Elizabeth Espinoza Monroy and Dr. Rocio Duran Vazquez).

We wish to express to both Guillermo and Diana and her colleagues our warmest thanks fortheir interest, their constant availability and responsiveness and their impressive expertise.

The desk research on Mexico involved an in-depth review of documents and websitesrelating to Mexico, its higher education system, institutions and policies and its participationin EU programmes. This desk research included in particular a review of the websites of allmain governmental, institutional and international players, in order to gather data andinformation about their role in the system and in the cooperation/mobility with the EU. Thisreview focused on policy aspects such as the modernisation and internationalisation ofhigher education and on instruments and practices related to quality assurance,qualifications frameworks, the recognition of foreign credits and degrees, etc.

A different type of desk research was necessary in order to compile the information neededfor the case studies provided in the substantial Annex to the report. These case studies dealwith 15 Member States of the European Union. The list of these countries was discussed and

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drawn up in full agreement with our Mexican colleagues, with a view to providing Mexicanpolicy makers at governmental and institutional level with information really suited to theirneeds. These 15 case studies have been prepared mainly by Laura Ivette BallesterosMendoza (ESMU) based on extensive desk research by Juan Ramn Nieto Quezada (MexicanFederal Government, DGAIR).

The gathering of primary information was mainly based on interviews with Mexicans andEuropeans directly involved in Mexican-EU cooperation/mobility in higher education.Interviews were conducted from Europe as well as from Mexico, with the followingcategories of persons and institutions:

- Mexican students who are studying or studied in Europe and European students whoare studying or studied in Mexico. Their participation was mainly within theframework of cooperation agreements and joint study programmes;

- Institutional leaders and international officers at higher education institutions ornetworks on both sides, at national Ministries and NARICs1, higher educationorganisations and exchange agencies and educational services of embassies; and

- Internationally highly recognised experts in the fields of international mobility andinternationalisation in higher education and with experience in or with Mexico.

Some of these interviews were conducted as focus groups, i.e. virtual meetings with smallgroups of individuals (4 6 persons) sharing a common profile or experience. Individualinterviews were conducted on the basis of three specially designed questionnaires (forstudents, institutions and higher education experts). These questionnaires wereadministered on paper whenever possible. Others were administered by telephone, Skype oremail (in particular with the experts referred to above).

We wish to express here our most sincere thanks to all interviewees students, professors,administrators, experts who accepted to share with us their experience and their opinion.

1 The interviews with a large number of NARICs were not part of the original work plan for this Report, but theyhave provided highly useful material and professional views for which we are particularly grateful.

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I. THE MEXICAN HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM

Mexico is an important country at regional and world level. It comes second in Latin America by the size of its population (113 million in 2010, compared to 196 million for Brazil) whichkeeps growing more slowly than in previous decades - at about 1.2% annually; in 2010 themedian age of the Mexican population was 26 years compared to 41 years in the EU27.With nearly 2 million square kilometres Mexico is the third largest country in Latin America,after Brazil and Argentina. Mexico is a full member of the OECD (together with only Chileand Brazil in Latin America). With a GDP per capita of over USD 14,000 in 20082 (inpurchasing power parity, ppp), it was level with Argentina and ahead of all other countries ofLatin America, including Chile (13,270) and Brazil (10,000); its GDP was growing more slowlythan those of these two countries and the regional (Latin American) average, but the growthrate was nonetheless (depending on the actual year considered) in the region of 4% perannum far above the EUs.

1. Governmental responsibility in the governance of higher education

Mexico officially the United States of Mexico (Estados Unidos Mexicanos) is a federalRepublic that numbers 32 federal entities: 31 States and one federal district (Distrito Federal DF) corresponding to the metropolitan area of the federal capital, Mexico City. This meansthat Mexico numbers actually 33 educational systems (a federal one and 32 regional ones) atall educational levels, including higher education. Amongst the founding principles laid downin the Federal Constitution of 1917 are the right to free (public) education, the laicism ofeducation and (following an amendment of 1980) the autonomy of public universities ifsuch autonomy is awarded to them by law. The Constitution also guarantees the freedomto teach, i.e. the freedom to deliver private education at all levels - within the framework ofthe applicable legislation.

At the federal level higher education falls under the responsibility of two main bodies:

- The Secretariat of Public Education (Secretario de Educacin Pblica SEP)3 of theFederal Government, which in its current definition dates back to 1921. Next to aDeputy-Secretariat for basic education and another one for secondary education, theSEP has two units that are of particular relevance to this study: the Deputy-Secretariat for Higher Education (Subsecretara de Educacin Superior SES)4 and theDepartment for Evaluation and Planning (Unidad de Planeacin y Evaluacin dePolticas Educativas UPEPE)5. The former includes 3 Directorates, respectively forTechnological Higher Education, [Regulated] Professions (and the maintenance of the

2 World Bank, World Development Report, 2010.3 http://www.sep.gob.mx4 At the time of writing this report, the Deputy-Secretary for Higher Education was Dr. Rodolfo Tuirn.5 http://upepe.sep.gob.mx/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=70&Itemid=73

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http://upepe.sep.gob.mx/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=70&Itemid=73http://www.sep.gob.mx

national register of professionals) and the Coordination of Universities of Technology;the latter consists of two DGs dealing respectively with Evaluation and with Planning,and a third one in charge of Accreditation, Authorisation and Recognition of Studies(Acreditacin, Incorporacin y Revalidacin DGAIR)6; UPEPE and DGAIR deal with alllevels of education not just with higher education.

Some other bodies linked to the SEP also play an important role in higher education,in particular the Directorate General (DG) of Professions, which serves as liaisonbetween the State and the various professional corporations and oversees the accessto, and exercise of many different professions, far beyond the 23 regulatedprofessions such as Medicine, Engineering, Architecture, etc.). In this capacity, DGProfessions registers the individual qualification of these professionals and issues tothem the individual professional licence (cdula profesional). A cdula can be issuedto individuals who demonstrate that they hold the required level of qualification(secondary vocational diploma, associate degree, licenciatura, specialisation diploma,master degree or PhD) and have completed the social service (Servicio Social), acompulsory period of voluntary work in a social service that complements theprogramme of study; professional internships, that are part of the study programmeor add to it, cannot be recognised as Servicio Social. For Mexicans studying abroadand for foreign graduates, this means that their access to a regulated profession hinges not only on the recognition of their academic studies, but also on theircompleting the Servicio Social.

This requirement was established in the Mexican Law on Professions of the year 1945that has become obsolete with regard to labour market needs in the KnowledgeSociety where the mobility of talent is an important factor for economic and socialdevelopment. Until it is improved, the current legislation entails huge complicationsfor applicants and is seen by higher education students and institutions as a majorobstacle to the development of more mobility. Possible amendments are beingdebated in Parliament, but it is not clear what the conclusion will be. Anotherdifficulty is that the current legislation forces the DG Professions to maintain theNational Register of Professionals, an official and publicly accessible list of the over7 million licensed practitioners in regulated and non-regulated professions7.

- The National Council for Science and Technology (Consejo Nacional de Ciencias yTecnologa CONACYT)8 , which was created in 1970 and is responsible for thedefinition of a nation-wide policy in these areas and for the development of research

6 http://www.dgair.sep.gob.mx DGAIR has been the main contact in the Mexican government for the preparation of the present Report. As mentioned in the introduction, its Director, Dr. Guillermo P. LpezAndrade, and staff have made essential, professional and highly valued contributions to it.7 http://www.cedulaprofesional.sep.gob.mx8 http://www.conacyt.gob.mx

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http://www.conacyt.gob.mxhttp://www.cedulaprofesional.sep.gob.mxhttp://www.dgair.sep.gob.mx

capacities and technology transfer to enterprises throughout the country. A new Lawon Science and Technology confirming Mexicos ambitions in the Knowledge Societywas adopted in 2002. CONACYTs role is particularly important in the development ofresearch-oriented postgraduate studies. As part of this mission, it runs (incooperation with the SEP) the National Programme for the Quality of PostgraduateStudies (Programa Nacional de Postgrados de Calidad PNPC)9 , a peer-review basedevaluation scheme aimed at labelling and supporting centres of postgraduatestudies of distinguished quality, able to become internationally competitive. As anextension to the evaluation programme, the CONACYT also maintains a Register of(currently 1300) postgraduate courses of excellence; 57% of these are Masterdegrees, 30% PhD programmes and 13% Specialisation courses; of these 1300programmes, the majority are consolidated and some 40% are either recent creations or still in development. CONACYT also runs a whole series of domestic andinternational grant schemes for Mexican academic and scientific staff pursuingpostgraduate studies, in particular at the doctoral and post-doctoral level. CONACYTemphasizes the importance of international cooperation agreements in these areas;a good example of this is the Postgraduate Cooperation Programme, which is co-financed by the Mexican and French governments and allows doctoral candidates toprepare a thesis in cooperation with industry under joint supervision (co-tutelle) from a Mexican and French university.

In 2011-2012, Mexicos education system had a coverage rate of 100% at pre-primary andprimary level and of 97% and 68.5 %, respectively, at lower and upper secondary educationlevel (age group 12-15 and 16-18). A major national effort based on a revision of theConstitution in 2011 is expected to allow full coverage at secondary education level within adecade. At the tertiary level of education, the enrolment rate was 32.4% for the age group19-23. With a total enrolment of 3.3 million students in tertiary education in the academicyear 2011-2012 (including some 300,000 open/distance education students), the Mexicanhigher education system is also the second largest in Latin America after Brazil (some 7million students). It has been growing rapidly at an average pace of about 3.5% per annum,which is however lower than Brazil and Latin America in general, where higher education hasincreased by over 80% over the past decade. The total number of teachers in Mexican highereducation is estimated at over 315,000. Some 85 to 100 new public HEIs have been createdannually in each of the past few years in Mexico. By means of comparison, the above figuresmean that Mexican higher education has become significantly bigger than any nationalsystem in the EU10, both with respect to the total number of students and the annual output of graduates (420,000).

Major landmarks in the development of the current Mexican higher education system werethe Federal Law on Education of 1973 and its revision of 1993. These laws increased the

9 http://www.conacyt.gob.mx/Becas/calidad/Paginas/Becas_ProgramasPosgradosNacionalesCalidad.aspx10 Tertiary Education Statistics, Eurostat, November 2011.

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http://www.conacyt.gob.mx/Becas/calidad/Paginas/Becas_ProgramasPosgradosNacionalesCalidad.aspx

power of the federal government in higher education and led to the creation of the RVOE(Reconocimiento de Validez Oficial de Estudios), a procedure allowing study programmes ofprivate higher education to be officially recognised if they meet specific conditions regardingtheir academic staff, facilities and curriculum. The recognition is awarded on a case by casebasis to a specific programme offered at a specific location, which means for example that aprogramme offered at various campuses by the same university needs as many RVOEs. TheRVOE decision requires an official Act of recognition issued at the federal level (presidentialdecree or SEP decision), by a State government (only for programmes offered on theirterritory) or in some States - by an autonomous public university. Of the current 25,000study programmes with RVOE run by private institutions, 45% received their RVOE from aState authority, 53% from a Federal body and 2% from an autonomous university to whichthey are affiliated. Through the RVOE, recognised study programmes gain official validity inthe Mexican higher education system: their graduates can apply for a professional licence(cdula profesional) or for a higher level of study at private or public higher educationinstitutions. This is what makes it valuable. Yet, it is not compulsory and is not seen inMexican society as a quasi-accreditation or a warranty of quality. Most private institutionsprogrammes with an RVOE do not hold a formal accreditation from FIMPES (the federationof private institutions of higher education see below) or another quality assurance agency.

The General Law on the Coordination of Higher Education of 1978 aimed at creating agreater diversification of the various types of higher education institutions in Mexico. Itrequired the Federal Government to make certain that the name of HEIs (including the useof the word university) corresponds to what they deliver and called for a bettercoordination between the federal, State and institutional level. In 2000, the legal frameworkgoverning the private education sector was revised and a ministerial regulation known asAcuerdo 279 was issued about private higher education institutions interested in the federalRVOE. This amendment was used by some States to introduce requirements for a localRVOE.

Some States are introducing new regulations linking RVOE and quality assurance, with a viewto enhancing the commitment of private institutions of higher education to quality. InOctober 2011, the State of Guanajuatos local law on education made it possible to get anRVOE conditional on prior accreditation of the institution and limited the duration of RVOEs.In July 2012 the State of Puebla passed a new local law on higher education imposing qualityconditions for the award and renewal of the RVOE.

Since mid-2011, a series of new federal governmental initiatives were taken about thecoordination of quality assurance, the improvement of the credit system and the recognitionof foreign studies; these initiatives are presented in the last section of Chapter II.

15

2. Higher education institutions and networks

Mexicos university tradition dates back several centuries. The first university in Mexico wascreated as the Royal University of New Spain, which received its charter from the King ofSpain in September 1551, just a few months after its sister university of San Marcos in Lima (Peru), making these two universities the oldest in the whole of the Americas. FollowingMexicos independence, the historical university was discontinued in 1833 and recreated in1910 as the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), now one of the largest universities in the world.

Currently, the country has over 3,000 officially registered institutions of higher education, ofwhich the majority (some 60%) are private even though the private sector accounts onlyfor about one third of tertiary level students. Since a number of these HEIs operate as multi-campus institutions - some of them with a local seat in each State or even province - thetotal number of higher education campuses in the country actually exceeds 6,000. Anunfamiliar feature for Europeans is that a number of Mexican HEIs also run courses at thelevel of upper secondary education (something quite common in Latin America in general).In order to qualify as a university, higher education institutions need to offer at least 5degree programmes (at Bachelor, Master or PhD level) in at least 3 different knowledgeareas.

As a consequence, only about one third of registered HEIs are universities (even thoughsome may not be called Universidad, but for example Instituto Tecnolgico11). 380 of theseare public universities, and some of the best known among them are autonomous such asthe National Autonomous University of Mexico (Universidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico UNAM); others are federal universities (such as the College of Mexico, the NationalInstitute of Anthropology and History, the National Pedagogical University with campuses allover the country or the brand new National Open and Distance Education University) orState universities.

Within the non-university sector, there are, for example, a large number of TeacherEducation Colleges (Escuelas Normales). In recent years, as part of the effort to upgrade thecountrys capacities in advanced science and technology, the government has also created anumber of Universities of Technology (Universidades Tecnolgicas), Polytechnic Universities(Universidades Politcnicas) and regional postgraduate centres or colleges.

Mexicos large and heterogeneous tertiary education system includes many different categories, networks, associations and clusters of HEIs, depending on their legal status,affiliation, scope, self-image, reputation, etc. The following table shows the sub-sectors(types of HEIs) in Mexicos higher education system.

11 Examples of this type of universities are the ITAM or the ITESO

16

TYPE INSTITUTIONALPROFILE

COMMENTS

1. Public autonomous Created by federal law. Universities committed tofederal universities According to the

Federal Constitutionthey enjoy wideadministrative andacademic freedom.

research, diffusion of culture andteaching at all levels of highereducation:- National Autonomous Universityof Mexico.- Metropolitan AutonomousUniversity.- Autonomous Agrarian UniversityAntonio Narro.- Chapingo AutonomousUniversity.

2. Public federal and Created by law or by Universities and institutionsState universities and presidential decree. committed to research, diffusioninstitutions of higher These institutions have of culture and teaching at alleducation a certain degree of

academic autonomyand a varying degree of(limited) administrativeautonomy.

levels of higher education.Examples at federal level:Pedagogical National University,National Polytechnic Institute,National Open and DistanceUniversity, Postgraduate Institutesof various federal ministries,National School of Anthropologyand History.

States also create suchinstitutions, usually by local law ordecree.

3. Institutions of higher Generally, these At federal level: the College ofeducation with support institutions are Mexico, a prestigious nationalfrom, or participation of governed by civil law centre of teaching and researchthe federal government (like a private

institution), but theyhave federalrepresentatives on theirboard, and receivepublic funds; they may

with a high level of autonomyconceded by Presidential decree.

The States also support orparticipate in institutions of thistype.

17

therefore be seen asnear-public entities.

4. Public federal Usually decentralized Institutions dedicated mainly toresearch centres institutions coordinated research and postgraduate

by the National Councilof Science andTechnology.

programs. At federal level, 7 aredecentralised Centres coordinatedby CONACYT, e.g. the Centre ofEngineering and IndustrialDevelopment, the Centre ofResearch and Higher Education inSocial Anthropology, the Collegeof the South Frontier or theNational Institute of Astrophysics,Optics and Electronics. 19 othersare Centres with participation ofanother federal entity.

There are also local centres ofresearch created by law, decree orexecutive order.

5. Governmental Specialised institutions Some examples of theseinstitutions, organisms (some 37) run by a institutions are:or ministries offering Federal Ministry or The Council of the Federaleducation byagreement

Agency, with anagreement from the

Judicature (responsible for thespecialization of judges,

Ministry of Education torecognise theirprogrammes. Most offer postgraduatecourses and doresearch.

magistrates and judicial staff), theNational Security School, or theCentre of CinematographicTraining.

6. State public Usually created by law 43 State (autonomous)universities or decree of a local universities involved in research,

State Congress. Most of culture and teaching at all levelsthem are considered as of higher education, e.g. theautonomous State Autonomous University ofuniversities. Aguascalientes, the Autonomous

University of the State of Mexico,the University of Guadalajara, theUniversity of Guanajuato, the

18

Universidad Veracruzana, or theAutonomous University of MexicoCity.

7. Federal and statetechnological institutes

Public and centralizedinstitutions, run by thefederal or a localMinistry of Education,offering teaching at alllevels, mainly to trainengineers andadministrators for localneeds. Research is not amain task, but itsimportance is growingat some of them.

The national (public) system oftechnological institutes includes110 federal TechnologicalInstitutes and 108 stateTechnological Institutes.

8. Polytechnic Vocationally-oriented There are Polytechnic universitiesuniversities public institutions. in 23 States of Mexico.

Generally they aredecentralizedinstitutions operated bythe States. They offerhigher education at alllevels and have acertain degree ofautonomy.

9. Technological universities

Created by a localdecree or law. Theyoffer mainly 2-yearprogrammes leading toan associate degree or asuperior highertechnician degree. Theyplan to offer bachelordegrees in order toincrease coverage andattract more students.

There are 61 TechnologicalUniversities in 26 States ofMexico.

10. Teacher colleges Public schools for thetraining of basiceducation teachers runby local governments.

272 public escuelas normales allover the country + 206 privateones.

19

They offer a national,official curriculum(mainly at the Bachelorlevel) established by thefederal government.Private institutions mayalso offer thiscurriculum with priorauthorisation of thelocal Ministry ofEducation.

11. Intercultural Created to promote These universities are mainlyuniversities professionals

committed to thedevelopment ofindigenous communitiesthrough training at alllevels of education.

located in areas near theindigenous communities.

12. Private universities Some prestigious These institutions include: theand institutions of private institutions Autonomous Technologicalhigher education with special treatment

enjoy specialtreatment thanks to a

Institute of Mexico, theMonterrey Institute of Technology

Presidential decree or and Higher Education (ITESM),an executive order of Anahuac University, thethe Ministry. They enjoy Autonomous University ofa certain degree of Guadalajara, the Iberoamericanautonomy, but need to University, the University of themaintain close contact Valley of Mexico, Intercontinentalwith the SEP. Current University.law no longer providesfor such decrees/orders.

13. Private HEIs Private institutions needto get for eachacademic programme ateach site a RVOE fromthe federal or a Stategovernment or, in somecases, from anautonomous university.

There are 2,608 privateinstitutions (sites) with a federalor local RVOE at bachelor leveland 1,186 private institutions(sites) with a RVOE atpostgraduate level (specialisationcourses, masters, PhD).

20

13. International HEIs Institutions based in - Latin-American Faculty of SocialMexico, with an Sciences (FLACSO).international characteror participation.

-Latin-American Institute ofEducational Communication(ILCE).

The complex diversity of higher education institutions in Mexico makes it difficult to producedetailed statistics. The following general data was taken from the sixth and final State of theUnion address of President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa12.

Total

Normal education bachelors degree

Technological and University Bachelors degree Postgraduate

Total Federal Local Private Total Federal Local Private Autonomous Total Federal Local Private Autonomous

3,161.2 133.8 6.1 93.9 33.8 2 798.5 397.8 456.8 850.1 1,093.7 228.9 19.0 10.9 118.9 80.2

Students in Higher Education (Thousands)

Higher Education Teachers

Total

Normal education bachelors degree

Technological and University Bachelors degree Postgraduate

Total Federal Local Private Total Federal Local Private Autonomous Total Federal Local Private Autonomous

342,269 16,329 769 11,064 4,496 279,666 29,116 33,728 114,804 102,018 46,274 6,985 2,301 21,776 15,212

Higher Education Institutions

Total

Normal education bachelors degree Technological and University Bachelors degree Postgraduate

Total Federal Local Private Total Federal Local Private Autonomous Total Federal Local Private Autonomous

6,878 484 6 272 206 4,224 223 574 2,608 819 2,170 201 165 1,186 618

The most important network of HEIs in Mexico is the National Association of Universities andHigher Education Institutions (Asociacin Nacional de Universidades e Instituciones deEducacin Superior de la Repblica Mexicana ANUIES)13 with a membership of 165universities and other HEIs that represent, as a rule of thumb, most of Mexican good

12 http://sexto.informe.calderon.presidencia.gob.mx/xls.html13 http://www.anuies.mx

21

http://www.anuies.mxhttp://sexto.informe.calderon.presidencia.gob.mx/xls.html

quality public higher education. ANUIES claims to represent over 80% of Mexican highereducation (in terms of student numbers). Although ANUIES counts also a small number ofprivate HEIs as associate members14 it represents mainly the public sector, where itsrequirement for membership tends to be seen as a credible substitute to institutionalaccreditation. Its membership directory provides a very helpful list of (mainly public)Mexican institutions of higher education offering a high proportion of officially recognisedprogrammes15, as well as a directory of their degrees (licenciaturas) and postgraduateprogrammes16. ANUIES has been for decades the main discussion partner of governmentalpolicy makers; it has been closely involved in policy shaping and runs a series of specialisednetworks and scholarship schemes in cooperation with, or on behalf of the Federal Ministryof Education.

The most important network of private higher education institutions is the Federation ofPrivate Mexican Institutions of Higher Education (Federacin de Instituciones MexicanasParticulares de Educacin Superior FIMPES)17, created in 1982. Currently it has amembership of 108 institutions that have passed the organisations own procedure forinstitutional accreditation and represent in total some 14% of Mexican higher education(in terms of student numbers). Of these 108 institutions, 46 have passed the accreditation atthe highest level (with merit) and the majority of these participate in special SEPprogramme that facilitates their operation. In contrast to the public sector, the directory ofofficially recognised programmes offered by private HEIs is not maintained by FIMPES, but by the Federal Ministry of Education18.

There are many other groups and networks of Higher Education Institutions. As acomplement to the aforementioned broad associations (ANUIES and FIMPES), the followinghave specific relevance for Mexican/EU cooperation and mobility, for example as guides toEuropean universities and students keen to find means of collaboration with Mexico:

- The Mexican Consortium of Universities (Consorcio de Universidades Mexicanas CUMex)19 aims to provide a common space for higher education with goodquality in Mexico. CUMex membership (currently some 20 institutions) is reservedfor public universities belonging to ANUIES and meeting certain additional criteria such as the percentage of students studying in officially recognised programmes,the qualification of academic staff, effective tutoring leading to a comparatively low

14 These members are grouped as the Council of Private Universities and Similar Institutions (Consejo deUniversidades Particulares e Instituciones Afines CUPRIA); since they need to comply with ANUIES criteria for membership, CUPRIA includes some (but by no means all) of the best private universities: some of these (likeITESM) belong both to ANUIES and FIMPES, others only to FIMPES (like the Iberoamericana) and others only toFIMPES; the CUPRIA sends an elected member to the annual General Assembly of ANUIES.15 http://www.anuies.mx/la_anuies/diries/16 http://www.anuies.mx/servicios/c_licenciatura/index2.php 17 http://fimpes.org.mx18 http://www.sirvoes.sep.gob.mx/sirvoes/index.jsp and www.calidad.sep.gob.mx (a detailed database ofprogrammes and HEIs showing which are accredited or evaluated.19 http://www.cumex.org.mx

22

http://www.cumex.org.mxwww.calidad.sep.gob.mxhttp://www.sirvoes.sep.gob.mx/sirvoes/index.jsphttp://fimpes.org.mxhttp://www.anuies.mx/servicios/c_licenciatura/index2.phphttp://www.anuies.mx/la_anuies/diries/

level of failure and dropout, the level of employment of graduates, the strategicorientation of institutional strategies and a high level of accountability andtransparency. Authorised Mexican and foreign sources see CUMex membership as areliable signal of good quality for regional institutions, which are less known than thenational leaders but provide interesting possibilities for cooperation andpartnerships. CUMex membership may therefore also be of relevance to Europeanuniversities, networks and students.

- The Common Space of Technological Higher Education (Espacio Comn de EducacinSuperior Tecnolgico ECEST)20 comprises the Institutes of Technology at federal andState level, the Polytechnic Universities and the Universities of Technology of Mexico.This network is not fully self-administered: it is coordinated by the Federal Ministryof Educations Higher Education Section, on the basis of an agreement signed in 2009with the member HEIs. The agreement sets out the main goals of this technologicalcluster: to boost the quality and flexibility of study programmes by means of thecross-recognition of licenciaturas and postgraduate studies among the members, topromote the development of professional skills and employability in graduates, andto coordinate the mobility and cooperation efforts between member HEIs and theirinternationalisation efforts. In view of the strong interest in engineering andtechnological studies of both Mexican and European authorities and highereducation institutions, ECEST may offer interesting opportunities for futurecooperation.

- The Alliance for Higher Education (Alianza por la Educacin Superior ALPES)21 , anassociation between some 50 private institutions offering higher professional trainingcreated in 1996. ALPES seeks to offer an affordable, high level alternative[presumably to public higher education] for the training of the kind of mid-level,responsible professionals that Mexico needs, e.g. in areas such as hotel and catering.The association is keen to develop some kind of quality processes and criteria amongits members. Currently its main activity consists in maintaining cooperation/mobilityagreement with employer organisations and some foreign partners in e.g. Canada and Spain. This network may be of interest for HEIs operating at level 5 of the EQF,which is by far not the most active in EU-Mexico joint activities in higher education.

3. Current priorities in Mexican higher education policy

The previous section presented a large, diverse and fast-growing Mexican higher educationsystem. The Federal Governments main priorities, articulated in the series of multi-annualNational Plans for Education (the most recent one covering the period 2007-2012), are

20 http://www.ecest.gob.mx21 http://www.alpes.edu.mx

23

http://www.alpes.edu.mxhttp://www.ecest.gob.mx

currently related to coverage, equity, quality, efficiency (relevance) and funding22. All thesepriorities have a bearing on the internationalisation of Mexican higher education, whichneeds to be analysed as a separate dimension, even though it may not yet be fully clearwhether or not it is about to become a sixth major priority in Mexican higher educationpolicy.

1. Coverage

Over the last decade, capacity building in higher education has been the main, on-going objective of Mexican higher education policy. The target was to increase higher educationscoverage from a Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) of only 13% of the age group 19-23 in theyear 1991-1992 and 19% ten years later, to about 30% by 2012. According to the 5thPresidential report of the Federal Administration 2006-2012, this goal was achieved by theacademic year 2010-2011, when the coverage reached 30.9% (counting students enrolled inface-to-face programmes and also students enrolled in open and distance educationprogrammes). In the academic year 2011-2012, the coverage rate was 32.4%. In the short period between 2007 and 2010, 96 new public institutions of higher education were created,and 50 new campuses were constructed, enrolling at least 90,000 students23.

Although Mexicans Gross Enrolment rate (GER) in higher education has been growing at theimpressive rate of 1% per annum over the last decade, considerable efforts still lie ahead:according to UNESCO data of 2008, Mexicos coverage rate of only 26% was still the lowest one among the big countries in Latin America (well behind Chiles 52%, Latin Americasaverage of 35%, Brazils 30%...and of course, Cubas 109%); it was also the lowest in theOECD, where most countries are well above 50%, and even over 70% in e.g. the Nordicregion.

Most of the growth in Mexican higher education has been concentrated at the level of thelicenciatura (first degree normally requiring 4.5 to 5 years of study) while shorter, morevocational higher education grew at a much slower pace. Overall, 89% of all students areenrolled in licenciatura programmes, while only 3.5% take shorter, vocational highereducation courses and 7.5% are registered at the postgraduate level. This seems to sustainthe common belief that Mexico is a country of licenciados (first degree graduates), i.e.society sees this as the level one ought to achieve in order to find ones way intoemployment and society.

Mexican authorities started in 1991 investing heavily in the development of a shorter,vocational higher education by creating the very decentralised network of (nowadays?) 250Universidades Tecnolgicas, i.e. vocational higher education institutions offering 2-yearprogrammes modelled after the French IUTs or the US Community Colleges and leading to

22 Most data in this Section was taken from the 2011 Report on Higher Education in Latin America, published byCINDA and Universia (Jos Joaqun Brunner, Editor).23 http://quinto.informe.fox.presidencia.gob.mx/index.php?idseccion=6

24

http://quinto.informe.fox.presidencia.gob.mx/index.php?idseccion=6

the titles of Tcnico Superior Universitario (TSU) or Profesional Asociado. In spite of allefforts, the development of this lower end of the higher education spectrum has remainedlimited and has even slowed down in recent years24, and the Universidades Tecnolgicashave turned their attention to the licenciatura level. Overall, short vocational highereducation represents only 1% of graduates in Mexico, well below the OECD average of 9%. Inrecent years Mexicos attention has focused ever more towards the top end of the system(postgraduate studies), which attracts a growing but comparatively still small minority ofstudents

2. Equity

It has been noted above that the Mexican higher education system is highly differentiatedboth between categories of higher education institutions and within each such category.Contrary to some other Latin American countries where the private sector enrols themajority of students, in Mexico the public sector accounts for about two thirds of thestudent population. Yet, issues about equity in the access to, and success in higher educationremain a major area of concern. This is in spite of the efforts to decentralise the system andbring higher education opportunities closer to local communities, the top end of Mexicanhigher education remains highly concentrated in the national and a small number of regionalcities. The rapid development of smaller, private institutions absorbing local demandwithout a particular attention to quality is another area of concern: the same as in otherLatin American countries, it addresses less-well prepared students, who are more likely tocome from poorer parts of society but have to pay fees and may get sub-standard education.This concern justifies the Governments attention to the development of quality standards inparticular in the private sector of higher education, in order to distinguish betweenlegitimate and opportunistic institutions of higher education.

Equity issues are also high on the agenda of ANUIES, as can be seen in the Associationsrecent report about the limitations of current policies and the need for a new generation ofhigher education policies in Mexico25. To the strategic priorities that can be expected fromsuch a report (e.g. access, innovation, academic careers, mobility, funding orinternationalisation), the ANUIES report adds a less common one. This is the physicalsecurity of persons and facilities on Mexican campuses, a growing concern that is evidentlyrelevant in the debate about equity and also interests Mexicans foreign partners, visitingstaff and incoming students. As main policy lines, ANUIES proposes a closer cooperationbetween IES and local authorities in charge of security, the training of staff about securityissues and a better coordination between the various governmental levels (federal, state,local, institutional).

24 Pedro Flores Crespo, Trayectoria del modelo de Universidades Tecnolgicas en Mxico (1991-2009),Cuadernos de Trabajo UNAM, 2012.25 Inclusin con Responsabilidad Social: Una nueva generacin de polticas de educacin superior, ANUIES, Mexico City, 2012. ISBN 978-607-451-048-5

25

Similarly to other Latin American countries, female students represent more than half of thestudent population and of new graduates although this is not the case across alldisciplines, levels and regions. Yet, the main line of stratification of the student population isaccording to social origin: 43% of young people of the richest 20% of the population arestudents, but this percentage is just 25% in the second quintile and less than 10% in thelowest one; these percentages have not much changed over the last years. The enrolment rate varies also considerably across the country: while the national average is now about 30%, it is still under 20% in several States of the Mexican Federation. The Mexican FederalGovernment is therefore trying to develop a series of fellowship programmes aimed atvarious categories of disadvantaged groups. The recent creation of Mexicos first-ever student loan system backed by the federal government has however been received withscepticism in the academic community, even though it was presented as a measure aimed atdemocratising higher education. The new loan scheme is expected to make available loansof about Euro 150 million to some 23,000 students during the first year of operation. Someexperts fear that it could mostly benefit students (and hence indirectly higher educationinstitutions) in the private sector and that it might push thousands of Mexican youth intounmanageable debt26. In parallel, the SEP is planning the setting-up of a NationalCommission of Scholarships and Student Financial Assistance that would be responsible forthe coordination of all grants and loans programmes at all levels.

3. Quality

In a very fast-growing higher education system like Mexicos, it is hardly surprising that themain bottlenecks with regard to the quality of higher education lie with improving theentrance level of students coming from secondary education and in developing highereducation staff.

In the light of Mexicos recurrent poor results with the OECDs PISA tests, the FederalGovernments National Action Plan for the years 2007-2012 has tried to overhaul theeducational system from the bottom up, starting with primary and secondary education andincluding higher education.

This requires a comprehensive, long-term effort that will be essential for the nationsdevelopment and its competitiveness in the Global Knowledge Society. In higher educationitself, it implies a massive effort to increase the number of academic staff (currently 335,000persons) and their level of qualifications. The Federal Government has set in place a policyaimed at improving the economic conditions of teachers in public institutions of highereducation (mainly through merit-based bonuses that come in addition to a rather low basicfinancial compensation) and at raising the proportion of academic staff holding a Master or

26 Cf. Marion Lloyd (UNAM), The danger of Mexicos new student-loan program, Blog of The Chronicle of HigherEducation. http://chronicle.com/blogs/worldwise/the-dangers-of-mexicos-new-student-loan-program/29084

26

http://chronicle.com/blogs/worldwise/the--dangers--of--mexicos--new--student--loan--program/29084

PhD degree. This means a major national effort and explains the large flow of Mexicanteachers seeking postgraduate degrees abroad, including in particular in the US and Europe.

This also explains the current efforts of the Federal Government to improve and betterorganise the hitherto partial, fragmented and complex system for the evaluation,certification and accreditation of quality in higher education that has emerged in stages overthe past 20 years (see Chapter II on Quality Assurance below).

4. Efficiency and social relevance

Among the priorities of the Federal Government lies the need to increase the contribution ofhigher education to the development of the country and its adjustment to the requirementsof the Knowledge Society.

From the viewpoint of graduates, the current situation is rather satisfactory. The private(individual) return of higher education studies compared to secondary education is relativelyhigh in most of Latin America, with an average of some 15%; this is also Mexicos rate, whichis clearly above the minimum of 10% found in Argentina and Uruguay, even though it islower than that of other major countries such as Brazil (26%) or Chile (20%). The transition ofgraduates from higher education to work may not be easy for all, but it is rather better thanelsewhere in Latin America and of course in Europe: the unemployment rate of thepopulation aged 25 to 64 years was only 3.3 % in 2007, compared to 8.2% in e.g. Germany orFrance.

In 2010 the PROFLEX project27, supported by the European Commission through the ALFAprogramme, provided comparative data gathered from 9,800 Latin American graduates fiveyears after graduation; nearly half of the respondents were from 9 Mexican universities;56.5% of them were women; most were satisfied with their studies and their integration intoprofessional life, in line with the Latin American average except for some specific aspects:Mexico had the highest rate of students combining study with work (25%) and the highest percentage of graduates who work as independent workers (20%); the country also had thehighest percentage of graduates who would choose again the same studies at the sameuniversities (over 63%), although they acknowledge two well-known relative weaknesses oftheir curricula, concerning the acquisition of practical experience and the learning of foreignlanguages.

Against this mixed picture, the Federal Governments main priorities with respect to therelevance of higher education to the needs of Mexican learners and society are threefold:

- to improve the learning process of students, in particular through more flexiblecurricula and better tutorial systems aimed at developing students capacities beyondthe academic dimensions;

27 PROFLEX Project, Summary of Findings in Latin America in comparison to Europe, J.G. Mora, J.M. Carot and A.Conchado Editors, Universidad Politcnica de Valencia, June 2010. ISBN 978-84-693-4550-4.

27

- to better articulate educational programmes at all levels with skills demanded onthe labour market and with the requirements of regional and national technologicaldevelopment; and

- to improve the integration, coordination and management of a very diverse anddecentralised higher education system that lies largely beyond the possibilities ofdirect governmental action.

These three priorities are strongly in line with the aims of the Bologna Process and theModernisation Agenda for European Higher Education, which focus on learning outcomes,employability and organisational reform agenda.

A major priority of the Federal Government is therefore to develop specific programmesaimed at encouraging technological development and innovation, through bodies such asINNOVATEC, INNOVAPYME (for SMEs) or PROINNOVA linked to the National Council forScience and Technology (CONACYT) that reports directly to the Office of the President whileworking closely with SEP28. The main goal of these initiatives has been to develop a researchand technology system that articulates higher educations research capacities with publicresearch institutions and the productive sector29.

Another measure aimed at increasing the relevance of Mexican education to the labourmarket is the proposal to set up a national Qualifications Framework. There is not yet a finaldraft for such a framework, but a possible model is under development (see last section ofChapter II).

5. Funding

Mexicos overall spending on education is in line with the OECD average: in 2011 the countryspent 5.8% of its GDP on education (OECD average 5.9%). Of this, some 1.2% was spent onhigher tertiary) education, of which about 0.9% came from public sources and 0.4% fromprivate ones. With Mexico spending a much lower percentage of its GDP as publicexpenditure, the above figures mean that Mexico is spending over 20% of its total publicexpenditure on education the highest percentage of all OECD countries. This should beseen together with another distinctive feature of Mexicos higher education: from the totalof 1.2% of GDP spent on higher education, about 75% (0.9% of GDP) are funded from publicresources and while in most of Latin American private higher education has been the fastest growing sector, in Mexico (and in some other countries such as Colombia) the strongest growth over recent years was registered in the public sector. Over the past decade, 71% ofnew study places were created in the public sector, which is interpreted by experts as asignal that private higher education has reached the limits of what the population can payfor.

28 National Development Plan 2007-2012 http://pndcalderon.presidencia.gob.mx/index.php?page=transf_edu229 Educacin superior, ciencia y tecnologa en Mxico: tendencias, retos, prospectiva, essay by Enrique delValle, UNAM, 2011. http://www.revistadelauniversidad.unam.mx/8711/delval/87delval.html

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http://www.revistadelauniversidad.unam.mx/8711/delval/87delval.htmlhttp://pndcalderon.presidencia.gob.mx/index.php?page=transf_edu2

This goes together with another observation. While expenditure per student has beengrowing in Mexico as in most other OECD countries, in Mexico this increase has been highlyfocussed on higher education. Mexico spends about 3.3 times more per tertiary educationstudent than per primary education pupil much less than Brazils ratio of 5.4, but wellabove the OECD average30. Overall, the CINDA Report of 2011 concludes that in spite of thepositive results achieved over the past 20 years, Mexico needs to urgently rethink its fundingpolicies and to better link them with quality and equity, in order to avoid the perverseeffects that have been growing in the past few years31.

This implies a continued, strong investment from public funding sources aimed at developingthe higher education sector in general and its research capacities in particular: development of local infrastructures in Mexico and training of (mainly young) Mexican researchers atpartner universities abroad (doctoral programmes and post-doctoral stays, financed mainlyvia the CONACYT and in part through bilateral programmes with countries like the USA,Germany, Spain, France, etc.

4. Mexican higher education and internationalisation

Some aspects that are high on European agendas for higher education are not seen as corepriorities in Mexico, for example the redevelopment of curricula, the review of teaching-learning methodologies or the shift towards lifelong learning. This is also the case forimportant aspects of internationalisation and student mobility.

Internationalisation has been a growing priority in Mexican higher education agendas overthe past decade. Nevertheless, Mexican internationalisation is following other patterns andpriorities to those in Europe, and internationalisation is mainly affecting some parts, ratherthan the whole of the higher education sector.

The internationalisation of Mexican higher education has been promoted both bygovernmental policies and the main higher education associations, notably ANUIES. On thegovernmental side, the SEPs main reason for seeking more internationalisation has been toimprove the quality of the system as a condition for the countrys economic and socialdevelopment, above all at the upper segment of tertiary education and in conjunction withresearch. While the number of higher education teachers has tripled in Mexico over the last three decades, the vast majority of them seriously lack international exposure andexperience; this is why the federal government seeks to address this issue through a seriesof programmes ranging from basic language learning to high-quality postgraduate studiesabroad for teachers (mainly through the PROMEP) and above all for researchers (mainlythrough CONACYT programmes and grants).

30 Figures mainly taken from OECDs Education at a Glance, 2011.31 CINDA-Universia Report 2011, Analysis of the case of Mexico in the Section Economy of the various nationalhigher education systems, pages 312-313.

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Several such programmes are run as part of intergovernmental cooperation schemes, usuallyon a co-financing basis. At the bilateral level, such cooperation schemes exist with several EUcountries, in particular with those most involved in higher education cooperation/mobilitywith Mexico, such as Spain, France, Germany or the United Kingdom. At the multilaterallevel Mexico is part of the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) with the USA andCanada and an active partner in the higher education activities that have emerged withinthis framework since 199232. Mexico has also been actively involved in the development ofthe Common Higher Education Area between the European Union and Latin America and theCaribbean (ALCUE) and participates in the activities proposed within this framework, e.g.through the ALFA programme or the TUNING project for Latin America. These activities arepresented in more detail in Chapter III of the present report.

Internationalisation has also become an ever more strategic item on the agenda of highereducation institutions and networks. ANUIES is encouraging its members to engage invarious types of internationalisation strategies: incoming and outgoing student and staffmobility, internationalisation of curricula and course materials, seminars and publicationsabout internationalisation strategies and indicators of internationalisation, inter-institutionalagreements and joint programmes, etc. Historically, the main emphasis of internationalcooperation and mobility has been with HEIs in the US, as proximity plays a big role in US-Mexico relations (trade, migration, etc.), but Europe has always been an important alternative destination, and there is a clear awareness at all levels that Mexican teachers andstudents also need to know Europe for cultural, linguistic, economic and political reasons.

According to the latest ANUIES data quoted in OECDs Review of Mexican Tertiary Education(2008), international activities of ANUIES member institutions were mainly organised (92%)on the basis of bilateral (and to a lesser extent trilateral/multilateral) inter-institutionalagreements. These activities cover the whole spectrum of disciplines: 23% were inEducation, 23% in Social Sciences, 20% in Engineering, 15% in Natural Sciences and 13% inHealth (not 100%). Students and staff going abroad went mainly to Europe (46%, with astrong focus on a limited number of countries), the USA (33%) and Latin America (17%).Visiting students/staff came mainly from the USA (37%), Europe (34%) and Latin America (15%). At NAFTA level, Mexican higher education institutions are active partners in theConsortium for North American Higher Education Collaboration (CONAHEC), a network of over 160 higher education institutions of the 3 countries including 53 in Mexico33. Mexicanhigher education institutions actively participate in the EUs mobility programmes with thirdcountries, such as Erasmus Mundus or Marie-Curie (see Chapter III, below).

32 In particular the Program for North American Mobility in Higher Education, which provides both mobilitygrants for students and academic and administrative staff and support for trilateral programmes that are very comparable to the kind of joint projects supported by the EUs ALFA programme.33 http://www.conahec.org CONAHEC runs grant schemes for student and staff mobility and acts as a highereducation lobby with the federal governments of the 3 countries. Since 2007 CONAHEC has been expanding itsmembership and activities to other world regions, starting with other Latin American countries and Europe (inparticular Spain).

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http://www.conahec.org

A major player in mobility and cooperation in Mexican higher education is the MexicanAssociation for International Education (Asociacin Mexicana para la EducacinInternacional AMPEI)34 . AMPEI has a membership of about 150 academic and professionalexperts (belonging to some 50 different HEIs) directly involved in international highereducation. It organises conferences, workshops and seminars and issues publications aimedat developing international awareness and capacities at member institutions. AMPEI maintains relations with its sister associations in the USA (the National Association ofInternational Educators NAFSA) and in Europe (the European Association for InternationalEducation EAIE). Contrary to similar organisations in other Latin American countries (e.g.Brazil, Argentina, Chile, etc.), AMPEI is an independent membership organisation, not aCommission or a dependency of the National Rectors Conference. There is no doubt that AMPEI will need to be a key player in the further internationalisation of Mexicos highereducation and its stronger cooperation/mobility with Europe.

Internationalisation in Mexico also hinges on factors related to the key problems of accessand equity. Many Mexican students have difficulties in fulfilling the requirements for studyabroad, either because their studies are not up to the expected standards (a reality that tends to be related to financial, social and cultural factors), their proficiency in foreignlanguages is insufficient, their inability to afford the related travel and study costs or theirunavailability because they study part-time and have a job on the side. However, Mexicanhigher education also numbers a significant proportion of students/graduates who are verywell prepared, especially those studying highly demanding programmes (such asengineering, natural and other scientific disciplines) at reputable (mainly public) institutions;either on the basis of their own resources or thanks to a Mexican or foreign grant, many ofthese students wish to continue their postgraduate studies abroad at prestigiousinternational institutions mostly in the USA and in Europe.

With regard to staff mobility, Mexican scholars often find it very difficult to leave their postsfor longer periods of time as they may lose their position at the university especially atprivate institutions. The solution they would favour would be a one-to-one exchange, wherea European professor takes the place of a Mexican professor for a predetermined period oftime, but the difficulties of this exercise are acknowledged at governmental and institutionallevel.

According to Latin American and European experts in internationalisation, the mainchallenges that need to be overcome for the development of internationalisation in general,and for Mexico-EU cooperation and mobility in particular, are related to a series of structuralfactors in Mexican higher education35:

34 http://www.ampei.org.mx/Eng/default.html35 The process on internationalisation at Latin American HEIs, Jocelyne Gcel vila (University of Guadalajara),in Journal of Studies in International Education (JSIE), Volume 11, Fall/Winter 2007, pp. 400-409;

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http://www.ampei.org.mx/Eng/default.html

A weak backing from permanent staff at HEIs: many Mexican higher educationteachers are not fully qualified, not well paid and work only part-time as they need todo extra classes, consulting schemes or even additional coursework within or outsidethe university (only 81,000 of the 330,000 higher education teachers have full-timecontracts); only a small minority of them is involved in research activities and an evensmaller minority (16,000 persons, i.e. less than 5%) belong to the National ResearchSystem; there are few professionals involved in the management of internationalcooperation and mobility; with very few exceptions, private universities are hardlyinvolved in research, as there are few or no incentives for teachers to do researchand the student-teacher ratios tend to be very high;

Limited number of students and teachers who are prepared to study and work inforeign languages, even in English;

Low number of students enrolled at the postgraduate level (only about 7%), inparticular at the PhD level (0.2%); this makes Mexican higher education lessattractive for potential partners in Europe, where universities are particularly keen tofind good partners for the exchange of researchers and students at the postgraduateand doctoral levels;

Funding difficulties, particularly at times of a weak peso, economic turbulences anddiminishing budgets in Mexico and in partner European countries (e.g. Spain); and

Security issues, which act as a deterrent for many students, families,teachers/researchers and institutions that would otherwise choose Mexico as theirdestination.

Brain drain issues also play a role in this cooperation matrix between Mexico and theEU, but they do not seem to be a major determinant in the shaping of mobilitypatterns36.

Over and above these factors, several experts also refer to a widespread lack of trueunderstanding of the nature of the trends and challenges in international highereducation.

These structural factors are compounded by more academic ones. Hitherto, Mexicanhigher education has focussed mainly on responding to a fast growing internal demandand has not (yet) been obliged to work on its international competitiveness. In spite offrustrating procedures for the recognition of foreign studies, international mobility has

36 Tendencias en las movilidades estudiantil y acadmica en Amrica Latina: de la fuga a la ganancia decerebros, Sylvie Didou Aupetit, May 2012. The author refers to three different types of measures aimed atmoving from brain drain to brain gain in the leading countries in the region: the repatriation of talent,invitation of foreign-based nationals for short-term stays at a national university, and the organization (i.e.the linkage) of the Diasporas.

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benefited a significant number of students and staff, but it has not (yet) produced animpact on institutional strategies, structures and attitudes. Similarly, at the Europeanend, many HEIs still view Mexico as a less-developed country and fail to recognise that the system offers a significant number of high-quality HEIs, demanding studyprogrammes, high-level research teams and excellent students at the undergraduate,master and PhD level37.

37 These conclusions about the state of internationalization in Mexico draw mainly on the Chapter onInternationalisation in the OECDs Review of Tertiary Education in Mexico and on interviews with independentexperts, especially Dr. Hans de Wit, Dr. Jocelyne Gcel vila, Dr. Salvador Malo, Dr. Sylvia Didou Aupetit, andDr. Arnold Spitta.

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II. QUALITY ASSURANCE AND TRANSPARENCY TOOLS IN MEXICANHIGHER EDUCATION

The development of internal and external quality assurance systems has been a major recent feature in higher education all around the world. This movement started relatively early (inthe 1980s or even earlier) in Latin America, mainly in the form of institutional andprogramme accreditation through governmental or quasi-governmental agencies at nationallevel. Mexico is no exception in respect of these developments, but contrary to othercountries (such as Argentina or Colombia) the country does not have a single national qualityassurance system, nor a single (or even a main) national agency. The same is true withrespect to other transparency tools. Mexico has neither a national comprehensive credit system, nor a national qualifications framework, nor a common approach for the recognitionof foreign studies.

The following sections will first review the existing system of quality assurance and thenthe current level of development of the other transparency tools; a third and final sectionwill present the series of measures that have been announced recently in particularthrough the DGAIR in order to address the current challenges for the Mexican approach toquality assurance, transparency and recognition in higher education.

1. Overall structure of the Mexican quality assurance system

The most conspicuous aspect of Mexican quality assurance is its large number of specialisedagencies promoted from either governmental initiatives or by particular sectors of thehigher education community, each with its different focus, methods and impact. This makesthe whole system rather difficult to use and understand, both for Mexicans and forforeigners.

1.1. Procedures and agencies in Mexican quality assurance

According to Mexican views the current system can best be presented following thesuccessive levels of quality assurance, from the most basic and compulsory ones to themore selective or specialised ones. This can best be presented using the method adoptedby the SEP of the Federal Ministry as a series of levels or concentric circles.

First level: basic requirements for offering official studies and professional qualifications

The first level corresponds to what may be called the licensing of new institutions andcurricula. In order to establish new public HEIs, the project needs to be assessed throughthe respective States Commission on higher education planning (Comisin Estatal dePlanificacin de la Educacin Superior COEPES) and the new institution needs to be created

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by law (at the federal or State level) or in some cases (such as for the brand new NationalOpen and Distance Education University) by a decree of the President of the MexicanFederation. If private HEIs wish to be able to offer official academic programmes theyneed to obtain for each of them the (optional) governmental recognition (Reconocimiento deValidez Oficial de Estudios RVOE). The RVOE makes the private HEIs part of the NationalSystem of Education. Only teachers' colleges (Escuelas Normales) need a prior institutionalauthorisation/licence if they want to be integrated into the National System of Education.The RVOE looks at basic requirements concerning academic staff, campus facilities and thecurriculum. It may be issued by the Federal Government (Ministry of Education) or by a StateGovernment (local Ministry of Education), usually after a review by the COEPES. Certainpublic autonomous universities of either the federa