Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education: A Comprehensive Overview
Tecnológico de Monterrey, also known as Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) or simply Tec, is a prominent private research university based in Monterrey, Mexico. Founded in 1943 by Eugenio Garza Sada, the institution has grown into a multi-campus system with a strong emphasis on entrepreneurial culture, humanistic values, and an international perspective.
Foundation and Early Years
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. The group was structured into a non-profit organization called Enseñanza e Investigación Superior A.C.
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. 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.
Expansion and Accreditation
In 1950, the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education became the first foreign university in history to be accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), one of the six regional accreditation agencies recognized by the United States Department of Education. This accreditation has been maintained uninterruptedly for over 30 years. The QS World University Ranking places Tecnológico de Monterrey as the #1 private university in Mexico.
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 and members of the Board cast doubt on its ability to get funds as an out-of-state university. 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.
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Campuses and Structure
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. 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. The Ignacio A. Fifteen liaison offices in charge of forging international partnerships and negotiating professional internships and academic exchanges with local universities, companies and civil institutions. 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. Such organizations (effectively serving as boards of trustees) are responsible for electing the rectors or directors of a particular campus.
Academics and Organization
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. 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. Studies at the institute are officially accredited by the Secretariat of Public Education of Mexico (Secretaría de Educación Pública, SEP) and by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) of the United States.
Global Recognition and Partnerships
The institute is the only Latin American institution at the European Consortium of Innovative Universities (ECIU) -an organization committed to innovations in both teaching and learning- and at Universitas 21; an international network of research-intensive universities established as an "international reference point and resource for strategic thinking on issues of global significance." It is also the only Mexican university, along the National Autonomous University of Mexico, to be enrolled at the Association of Pacific Rim Universities, an international consortium of leading research universities including Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley and Caltech. The institute was also the first private university to become a member of the National Association of Universities and Institutions of Higher Education of Mexico (ANUIES) back when it was composed entirely by public universities (1958) and is a full member of the Mexican Federation of Private Institutions of Higher Education (Federación de Instituciones Mexicanas Particulares de Educación Superior, FIMPES). The university recently became a partner of Washington University in St.
Ignacio A. Santos School of Medicine
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). 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. The general director of the TecSalud organization is Guillermo Torre M.D. PhD, a cardiologist who trained under Michael E.
Research and Innovation
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, 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. Additionally, the Institute developed a researcher-friendly patent scheme that aims to attract talented researchers and reduce the national brain drain.
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Student Life
Student life, traditions and activities vary among campuses. The Institute goes to great lengths to provide scholarships to those in need, awarding partial financial assistance to 49% of its student population. However, with tuition fees exceeding MXN $200,000 per academic year (among the highest in Latin America according to Forbes magazine) most of its student community comes from upper and upper-middle class and the overall atmosphere is arguably politically and socially conservative. The number of international students vary notably among campuses. 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.
Notable Alumni and Faculty
Secretary of Commerce and the Mexican Secretary of Economy (former Kelloggs' CEO Carlos Gutiérrez and Gerardo Ruiz Mateos) were Tech alumni. At least two late presidential candidates and democracy activists, Luis Donaldo Colosio and Manuel Clouthier, were former graduates. Over a dozen Mexican governors and cabinet members have attended classes at the institute, including former Secretary of Commerce and North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) negotiator Herminio Blanco. As for staff and faculty, at least two rectors or directors of different universities have been lecturers or members of the staff at the institute. Luis Ernesto Derbez, a former Foreign Minister, is currently the Rector of the University of the Americas, Puebla. Enrique Cabrero Mendoza is the current head of The National Council for Science and Technology and a former rector of CIDE.
Tec21 Educational Model
Tecnológico de Monterrey is reinventing the higher education model to go hand in hand with the needs of a new era and addressing the challenges of a world that has yet to be invented. Tec21 Educational Model provides students with the foundations of Tec's vision: leadership, entrepreneurship, and innovation. With a radical transformation of the traditional semester-based curricula and grounded on competences demanded by a 21st century context, Tec21 Educational Model dwells on four core elements: challenge-based learning, flexibility, inspiring faculty, and memorable college experience. In 2013, Tec de Monterrey president Salvador Alva appointed David Garza as Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education and told him to spend six months learning from other postsecondary institutions how to educate university leaders for the future. The following year, Garza returned with a treasure trove of research and a dream, and the school's modernization journey began. Five years later, that dream would manifest itself as Tec21, Tec de Monterrey's overhauled, modernized educational model.
The four pillars of Tec21 are challenge-based learning, flexibility, providing a memorable university experience to students, and inspiring professors. Challenge-based learning includes collaboration among multiple professors and training partners such as both public and private organizations to provide real-world, competency-based tasks for students to complete, thus building relevant job skills and fostering innovation and change. Partnering with external organizations provides the students with an understanding of their local businesses and helps them build connections to enter the workforce. Flexibility in the educational model means not only empowering students to strengthen their skills but also shape their educational journey to their own passions and needs.
Implementation of Tec21 with Ellucian Banner 9
Tec de Monterrey chose Ellucian Banner 9 as their software platform. The school said it made its decision based on Banner's capabilities and functionalities, which allowed them to tailor it to seamlessly interact with the Tec21 environment. Tec de Monterrey had used previous iterations of Banner on campus for several years, but Banner 9 was a boon for the school in preparing its new education model. Banner offers modularity, which is crucial for future-proofing an institution and keeping up with other evolving software with which it interacts.
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With the model prepared, and the tech in place, all that remained was the educators' buy-in. To waylay these concerns before fully deploying Tec21, they developed several transition initiatives including a week-long pilot program they called "i Week," with the "i" standing for "innovation." i Week ran 1,600 projects simultaneously, with students picking challenges and undertaking them. Skeptics became cheerleaders and the program was rolled out in full. In August 2019, Tec de Monterrey implemented Tec21 for their freshman class. Over the next three years, they maintained its practice for that class while introducing it to the incoming freshman class, eventually utilizing Tec21 for the entire student body. The implementation of Tec21 and Banner took place across 25 campus locations in order to ensure a widespread impact across the institution. This means that 1,300 classrooms were equipped with technology to promote interactive and innovative learning experiences.
Results of Tec21 and Banner 9 Implementation
According to Tec de Monterrey, not only could they optimize their existing automation with Banner 9, but it also allowed them to significantly improve data handling and interactions in their enrollment processes, ultimately boosting their student retention by 2.8%. Meanwhile, implementing various Banner functionalities along with Banner Self-Services and things like student profile reduced implementation times.
Banner 9's seamless integrations, streamlined processes, and personalized functionalities revolutionized Tec de Monterrey's student management processes. For the first semester that Banner and Tec21 were in use, the institution noted an 8% increase in enrollment. Comparing graduation-on-time rates, there was a remarkable improvement from 29.2% for the previous model to 50.1% for the new model. This means that more students can complete their studies within the expected timeframe. Over 700 organizations jumped at the chance to partner with Tec de Monterrey for the Tec21 learning model.
Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Successful and exemplary entrepreneurs, whose vision of wealth creation and regional transformation through leadership, education, courage, and new venture creation still resonates in the country, founded Tecnológico de Monterrey more than 75 years ago. 41% of Tec de Monterrey alumni have started a for-profit business. 65% of these companies are estimated to still be in operation today. Of all for-profit funders, 38% are serial entrepreneurs, where 26% of them created two for-profits, and 12% created three. As a private university - which has become a major player in the Mexican and Latin American regional development - Tecnológico de Monterrey is always looking for new experiences to promote entrepreneurship and innovation-based culture in all the students, communities and regions.
Currently the primary and most important strategy has been to promote entrepreneurship and innovation through a distinctive educational model for entrepreneurship learning and development, aided by a network of 21 business incubators, 11 technology parks, liaison offices in Silicon Valley. Tec also presents a unique mentoring program with more than 1,000 high level executives, most of them successful alumni. Tecnológico de Monterrey incorporated entrepreneurship programs more than 30 years ago, becoming the pioneer and leading university in Latin America on this subject. Subsequent to this thriving initiative, and over the following years, the institution formed and implemented a network of business incubators, business accelerators, technology parks, venture capital support activities, and mentoring, taking advantage of the unique national presence through 26 campuses in México. The 21 business incubators distributed throughout the country currently serve 1,200 projects; the incubator network has graduated more than 4,500 companies since 2002. The Technology Parks Network currently includes 11 Technology Parks. These "hubs" hosts more than 250 firms and had created and supported more than 3,600 high value jobs. In 2013, a unique entrepreneurship and innovation festival for entrepreneurs, innovators and investors branded INCmty was founded, reaching more than 10,000 participants in the 2020 edition. The entrepreneurship strategy and organization at Tecnológico de Monterrey is headed by the Institute for Entrepreneurship Eugenio Garza Lagüera, named after a prominent Mexican business leader.
Ethics, Citizenship, and Internationalization
Students at Tec de Monterrey consolidate their ethics and citizenship competencies through curricular and extra-curricular activities, particularly with social and community service projects, and student group activities. These capabilities teach students to ponder, analyze and evaluate ethical dilemmas related to themselves, their professional practice and their context; to respect and serve humanity and planet (aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals); to know and be sensitive about the social, economic, political and ecological context; and to act with solidarity and civic responsibility.
Arguably regarded as the most international university in Latin America, Tec's strategic alliances with globally renowned consortiums and universities from over 48 countries promotes students and faculty exchange, as well as research projects. The attendance of foreign students and faculty in most of the campuses shapes an international environment favoring a global competitive profile in the students.
Campus Life and Facilities
More than 1,000 student organizations provide some of the most memorable experiences while at Tecnológico de Monterrey. These organizations are centered in regional, cultural, scientific and sport activities. As a multi-campus university system with international reach, Tecnológico de Monterrey has campuses distributed throughout México's diverse regions. The main campus is in the northern City of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, nearly 150 miles from Texas. This 138-acre campus includes research centers, an award-winning library, a professional football stadium (among several sport facilities), and more than 12 residence halls. Additionally, 18 international liaison offices located around the world work on essential academic and business connections, executive education programs, and joint research projects. Each one of the campuses offer world-class facilities with coworking spaces, libraries, sports and leisure areas. According to the Educational Model Tec21 a new breed of learning environments and furniture have been designed to promote flexibility on how, when and where the teaching-learning process is done. Disciplines physically closely coexist in every campus (engineering, medicine, biotechnology, business or social science) motivating transdisciplinary experiences, and interact with emblematic buildings such as the new Campus Monterrey's library which was awarded by the International Interior Design Association (IIDA) and the American Library Association (ALA) for the "best interior design of an academic library".
Monterrey: The Host City
The flagship campus of Tecnológico de Monterrey is located in Monterrey, the state capital of Nuevo León. A city of 4.5 million inhabitants, Monterrey lies in a valley surrounded by majestic mountains about 250 kilometers south of the border with Texas and 1,000 kilometers north of Mexico City. Monterrey is Mexico's third largest city and one of the nation's most important industrial, financial and business centers. The city boasts a warm, dry climate and lies in a valley surrounded by stunning mountain ranges, with the Sierra Madre Oriental mountains recognized as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Monterrey is often considered the most ‘Americanized’ city in Mexico, combining a modern outlook with history and traditional culture. Monterrey is home to a thriving artistic community, various museums, theaters, concert halls, symphony orchestra, ballet company and prominent sports teams. Tecnológico de Monterrey has modern sports facilities including a gym, pool and exercise classes. Students can also participate in team sports. The international programs office organizes trips and excursions during the semester to other cities including places like Guanajuato, Zacatecas, Merida and Playa del Carmen.
Tecnológico de Monterrey's Vision
Tecnológico de Monterrey or Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education was founded in 1943 and is a private, non-profit institution independent of and not related to any political party or religious group. This has given Tecnológico de Monterrey a perception of the different needs of each region and the capacity to prepare professionals who can meet them, without leaving their local environment.
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