A British study of the world’s universities places Mérida’s UADY among the best, not just in the country, but in Latin America.
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings casts the Autonomous University of Yucatán as the fourth highest-scoring institution of higher education in Mexico.
UADY ranks No. 36 in all of Latin America, tied with the University of Guadalajara.
Established in 1922 by then-governor Felipe Carrillo Puerto as the Universidad Nacional del Sureste, UADY’s lineage may be traced back to a Spanish Empire royal decree in 1611, allowing for the creation of the Colegio de San Francisco Javier in Mérida. Over 17,000 students are enrolled there, studying under an academic staff that surpasses 700 tenured faculty, and 200 on scholarship.
Mexico is represented in the top 10 by the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (eighth) and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (ninth). Eight of Mexico’s schools made the top 50.
Brazil dominated the list, with 23 schools in all, and taking half the top 10 places – with the University of São Paulo and the State University of Campinas in first and second place, respectively.
Chile is the second most-represented nation, with 11 schools led by the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (in third position) and the University of Chile (fourth).
No institutions of higher learning from Costa Rica, Peru or Venezuela made the list.
The methodology favors research and teaching universities, taking into account the balance of students and teachers and the number of students enrolled in doctoral programs.
Carolina Guzmán-Valenzuela, researcher at the Center for Advanced Research in Education at the University of Chile, said that Brazil’s success in the ranking reflects its high research outputs, high production of patents, and high research-and-development spending.
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings, founded in 2004, “provide the definitive list of the world’s best universities, evaluated across teaching, research, international outlook, reputation and more,” according to Times, whose data “are trusted by governments and universities and are a vital resource for students, helping them choose where to study.”
Source: Diario de Yucatán
