The Metropolitan Autonomous University ( Spanish: ''Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana'') also known as UAM, is a Mexican

public research university A public university, state university, or public college is a university or college that is State ownership, owned by the state or receives significant funding from a government. Whether a national university is considered public varies from o ...

. Founded in 1974 with the support of then-President Luis Echeverria Alvarez, the institution aims to be closely linked to the social and human environment. As an

autonomous university Autonomous university typically refers to a university that exercises a high degree of autonomy from the state. The main dimensions of university autonomy are academic, organizational, financial and staffing autonomy. The 1988 Magna Charta Univer ...

, UAM is a public agency of the

Mexican government The Federal government of Mexico (alternately known as the Government of the Republic or ' or ') is the national government of the United Mexican States, the central government established by its constitution to share sovereignty over the republ ...

.Article 3 of the Organic Law of the UAM It has five academic units located in Mexico City and

Greater Mexico City Greater Mexico City is the conurbation around Mexico City, officially called the Metropolitan Area of the Valley of Mexico (). It encompasses Mexico City itself and 60 adjacent municipalities of Mexico, municipalities of the State of Mexico and Hi ...

Azcapotzalco Azcapotzalco ( ; ; from ''wikt:azcapotzalli, āzcapōtzalli'' “anthill” + ''wikt:-co, -co'' “place”; literally, “In the place of the anthills”) is a Boroughs of Mexico City, borough (''demarcación territorial'') in Mexico City. Azcap ...

, in north,

Iztapalapa Iztapalapa () is a borough (''demarcación territorial'') in Mexico City, located on the eastern side of the city. The borough is named after and centered on the formerly independent municipality of Iztapalapa (officially Iztapalapa de Cuitláhua ...

, in east,

Cuajimalpa Cuajimalpa de Morelos (; more commonly known simply as Cuajimalpa) is a Boroughs of Mexico City, borough (''demarcación territorial'') in Mexico City. It is located on the west side of the city in the Sierra de las Cruces mountains which separate ...

, in west,

Xochimilco Xochimilco (; ) is a borough () of Mexico City. The borough is centered on the formerly independent city of Xochimilco, which was established on what was the southern shore of Lake Xochimilco in the precolonial period. Today, the borough cons ...

, in south, and Lerma in

State of Mexico The State of Mexico, officially just Mexico, is one of the 32 federal entities of the United Mexican States. Colloquially known as Edomex (from , the abbreviation of , and ), to distinguish it from the name of the whole country, it is the mo ...

.), The institution is among the top academic universities in

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. In 2019, it ranked first among both public and private institution, was second in the number of full-time research professors with

doctorates A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

, according to the Comparative Study of Mexican Universities (''Estudio Comparativo de Universidades Mexicanas''); having the second largest number of built in National and Research System (''Sistema Nacional de Investigadores'') the second in having researchers at Level 3 of the same researchers. One of the leading universities in Mexico to submit the highest number of research. And the second institution to have publications in refereed journals, such as the

Institute for Scientific Information The Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) was an academic publishing service, founded by Eugene Garfield in Philadelphia in 1956. ISI offered scientometric and bibliographic database services. Its specialty was citation indexing and analysis, ...

, Latindex and journals included in the ''Index of Mexican Journals of Scientific and Technological Research'' of the National Council of Science and Technology (''Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología'') and the second to have magazines within the Conacyt, it is also among the top four with the largest number of patents granted in

History

After the historic 1968 Tlatelolco massacre in

concluded, and after other subsequent movements in favor of education and claim social improvements, the need for comprehensive education reform in Mexico was evident. In 1973, during the administration of President Luis Echeverria Alvarez, the ''National Association of Universities and Institutions of Higher Education'' (ANUIES), he presented a document to the President noting the need to establish a new university in the metropolitan area

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

, taking into consideration issues such as increasing student demand and the increasing failure of existing universities to admit more students. It then proposed that the nascent university project also constituted an opportunity to modernize higher education in the country. The expected characteristics of the new university were it to be public, metropolitan, independent, innovative addition to its educational and organizational terms. It is under such expectations that the law comes into force for the creation of the Autonomous Metropolitan University, on 1 January 1974. On 10 January of that year, he was appointed first Rector of the UAM architect Pedro Ramirez Vazquez. The University is established since its creation three units, which are located in

and

, with the idea of promoting decentralization and allow the full development of each. Empirically, scientific research in Iztapalapa (UAM-I) Unit is located, the traditional careers such as civil engineering and architecture at the Azcapotzalco (UAM-A) unit and the area of health in the Xochimilco Unit (UAM -X). Subsequently, it was decided that their internal organization would be composed of divisions and academic departments, creating a contrast with the Schools and Colleges of existing universities. Each division would group different areas of knowledge and related disciplines each department, in order to give a flexible structure that prevents the lag that education has suffered in relation to the progress of science. The first Rector of the Iztapalapa Unit was Dr. Alonso Fernandez González and began operations on September 30, 1974. In turn, the Rector of the Azcapotzalco Unit was Dr. Juan Casillas García de León, which opened its doors 11 November 1974. For the Xochimilco was Rector Dr. Ramon Villarreal Perez, initiating teaching also the November 11, 1974. Recently, the possibility of creating a new unit of the UAM was analyzed. The April 26, 2005 the Academic College of the institution approved the creation of the

campus, appointing in June of that year Dr. Fresán Magdalena Orozco as the first Rector. The activities of the Unit officially pulled the September 14, 2005, using different locations, at first at the

Universidad Iberoamericana The Ibero-American University (), also referred to by its acronym ''UIA'' but commonly known as ''Ibero'' or ''La Ibero'', is a private, Catholic, Mexican higher education institution, sponsored by the Mexican province of the Society of Jesus ( ...

. Then he took three temporary facilities: Baja California, Artifice and Constituents Constituents adding a fourth in 647. His final location was achieved in 2014 on the grounds of "Scorpio", ancient land of the ''Zona Especial Forestal y de Repoblación Bosques Industriales La Venta'', which had not been built by the lack of legal certainty and the opposition of local people to Ocotal forest development in the sale of

. :en:UAM Cuajimalpa (Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana)

Campuses

The university system has 5 units, with

campus A campus traditionally refers to the land and buildings of a college or university. This will often include libraries, lecture halls, student centers and, for residential universities, residence halls and dining halls. By extension, a corp ...

es located in different boroughs of Mexico City and in the adjacent state: * UAM Azcapotzalco — located in

, northern Mexico City * UAM Iztapalapa — located in

, eastern Mexico City * UAM Cuajimalpa — located in

, western Mexico City * UAM Xochimilco — located in

Coyoacán Coyoacán ( ; , Otomi: ) is a borough (''demarcación territorial'') in Mexico City. The former village is now the borough's "historic center". The name comes from Nahuatl and most likely means "place of coyotes", when the Aztecs named a pre- ...

, southern Mexico City. * UAM Lerma — located near

Toluca Toluca , officially Toluca de Lerdo , is the States of Mexico, state capital of the State of Mexico as well as the seat of the Municipality of Toluca. Toluca has a population of 910,608 as of the 2020 census. The city forms the core of the Grea ...

, in the

Main office

UAM Rectoría is the main office of the university system. It is located in the south of the city, on Canal de Miramontes street near

Gallery

Image:UAM X Biblioteca.JPG, UAM Xochimilco Image:UAM X RECTORIA.JPG, UAM Rectoría Image:UAMI NITE.JPG, UAM Iztapalapa Image:UAMI NITE BELKIN.JPG, UAM Iztapalapa Image:UAMI CBI NITE.JPG, UAM Iztapalapa Image:UAM Recotria general.JPG, UAM Rectoría Image:UAM-RG.jpg, UAM Rectoría Image:Escultura en la Rectoria General de la UAM.jpg, UAM Rectoría Image:Puerta del tiempo UAM.JPG Image:Fachada RG UAM.JPG, UAM Rectoría Image:UAM_Azcapotzalco.jpg, Unit Azcapotzalco Image:Edifcio_o_xochimilco.JPG, Unit Xochimilco Image:UAM_Cuajimalpa.jpg, Unit Cuajimalpa Image:CasaImprentaDF.JPG, House of the First Print Shop in the Americas in historic Centro district of Mexico City, now the Continuing Education Center of UAM.

Notes

References