U.S. partnerships strengthen cross-border links at UAEM

Article - August 23, 2011

The Autonomous University of Mexico State, UAEM, has almost 58,000 students at 15 campuses across the state and has opened a representative office in the University of North Texas

ONE OF THE MOST PRESTIGIOUS UNIVERSITIES IN THE COUNTRY, UAEM CAN TRACE ITS ROOTS BACK TO 1828 AND HAS ITS MAIN CAMPUS IN TOLUCA

The Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Mexico, or UAEM, is a public institution dedicated to providing an effective higher public education based on social commitment. The institution, which has been functioning for almost 200 years, offers education at the high school, undergraduate and graduate level. It is a public institution that offers a quality education and 106 educational programs to its nearly 58,000 students throughout the State of Mexico.

Because of its excellence in education, UAEM has received a number of awards in recent years. In recognition of its significant achievements in public education, in 2010 UAEM was honored for the fourth consecutive year by the Ministry of Education for the quality of its programs and advancement in capacity, as well as its competitiveness and institutional management.

In addition, UAEM also received the SEP-ANUIES National Award from Mexico’s Ministry of Education (Secretaria de Educacion Publica, SEP) and the National Association of Universities and Higher Education Institutions (Asociacion Nacional de Universidades e Instituciones de Educacion Superior de Mexico, ANUIES). This national award was specially given to UAEM to distinguish the efforts the institution has taken to improve the State of Mexico in the 21st century.

The most important recent activity by UAEM is attempting to drive organized work between the government, universities and companies. This joint commitment model to achieve national development is otherwise known as the ‘triple helix’. In line with one of UAEM’s main goals being to contribute to societal bonding between the government, universities and companies, the institution hosts the largest network of business incubators in the State of Mexico, holding approximately 12 of these spaces.

Furthermore, UAEM was also selected as the presidential site of the Mexican Association of Centers for the Development of Small Enterprises, or Asociacion Mexicana de Centros para el Desarrollo de la Pequeña Empresa (AMCDPE). AMCDPE is an association which, through the use of theoretical and practical tools, enables the growth and development of enterprises, helping to cultivate small businesses into the framework of a more competitive environment.

UAEM, working together with associations like AMCDPE and the Institute for Economic Development at the University of Texas in San Antonio, will be able to have a more positive impact in the business community by using the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) model. In this association, the institutions under the AMCDPE chaired by UAEM are committed to providing assistance in 90 different centers that provide advice and consultants to supported businesses. The institutions assist businesses in becoming successful by taking advantage of and exploring their potential to be competitive, merge, and settle.

UAEM ideally seeks to establish a platform linking Mexican center customers with the U.S. through the exchange of services between the two countries. This business relationship will likely be very significant, as it has the potential to bring collaborations among 100 companies and the expertise of anywhere between 1,000 and 5,000 consultants. Therefore, to aid in building this platform, UAEM has become the first and only higher education institution in Mexico to hold offices in a foreign university, namely the University of North Texas (UNT), one of the four most important institutions in the U.S.

Since the partnership began in February 2005, UAEM has not only established itself in Denton, where UNT is located, but also in two other Texan cities: Dallas and Fort Worth. UAEM’s office in UNT’s College of Arts and Sciences is its most important, as it has assigned about half of its professors and teaches approximately 33,000 of its students there. UAEM’s office in UNT is not only important, but also unique, as although many other universities hold representation of foreign universities, they are usually not hosted by their sister institutions.

The university aspires to nurture the relationships of the students and faculty between UAEM and UNT. Therefore, in order to strengthen academic and student exchanges, programs are detailed to support working together. This is also done in the area of improving English and Spanish language skills to improve cross-cultural communication. The program was successfully carried out by the students and faculty in 2010, leading to the opening of the American institution’s representative office in the Mexican ‘Maxima Casa de Estudios’, located in UNT’s Administration Building.

The collaboration between chemistry researchers and professors, and later in the field of sciences, has been fruitful and led to an almost 15-year relationship consolidated in major internationalization projects in all areas of knowledge.
At the present time, the faculties participating these

academic exchanges are: Accounting and Administration, Engineering, Economics, Political and Social Sciences, Arts and Languages. Also taking part is a UAEM group that provides English summer courses and a Master of Teaching English, which offers a double degree and is recognized by the the National Register of Quality Post-graduate Programs or Programa Nacional de Posgrado de Calidad (PNPC). This degree is awarded by the National Council for Science and Technology or Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia (CONACYT) in Mexico.

At the moment, there are many academic projects between UAEM and UNT. However, the leading projects worth mention between the two universities are: mobility programs for undergraduates and graduates, conducting joint research, and dual graduation.