Graduate programmes in Mexico increasingly popular
22 Sep 2010
Over the last 30 years the demand for higher education in Mexico has increased 16 times.
By Diana Zavala Rojas, El Universal – “Especialízate” supplement
Higher education at postgraduate level, has grown in Mexico over the last few years. From 1994 until 2004, the student enrolment in postgraduate programmes increased with approximately 10%. Nevertheless, this only amounts for 0.47% of the total students at national level.
Although these numbers may seem very low, but while in 1970 the total enrolment was 3,220 students, in 2004 this number had increased 16 times to 51,772, according to the data from the Association of Higher Education Institutions (ANUIES). To give you an idea of this large growth rate, the total Mexican population at the beginning of the 21st century was only twice as large as in the 1970s.
In the ‘70s 87% of the students was male, in the ‘80s this was 75% and in the ‘90s 68%. The last report from ANUIES shows that the balance between male and female has leveled: 54% of the total enrolment is male and 46% is female.
The graduation rate of the students has also increased in the past 30 years. In the beginning of the ‘70s 1 out of every 5.4 students graduated, in 2003 this number was 1 out of 3.6.
From 1970 until 1994 79% of the postgraduate students were enrolled in public institutions but in 2004 the private institutions accounted for 40% of all enrolment. Nowadays, 423 private institutions compete with 227 public ones. The private sector offers 1,549 master programmes, which represents 47.6% of the total postgraduate offer.
On the other hand, of the 567 PhD programmes, 461 were given in public universities, or in other words, 81.3% of all research is done in public institutions.
The master’s degree programmes are the most popular postgraduate programs for Mexicans. They account for 66% of the national postgraduate enrolment. The remaining third consist of specialization programmes (from 21.3 to 37%) and PhDs (from 3 to 8.3%).
59% of future graduates with a master’s degree are concentrated in five Mexican states: Mexico City’s Federal District (44,365), Puebla (10,123), Nuevo Leon (10,350), Estado de Mexico (9,942) and Jalisco (9,679).
In the 1980s postgraduate students preferred social and administrative sciences (39.4%) and health sciences (30%). Engineering accounted for 12.9%, education and liberal arts 9.4%, natural and exact sciences 6% and agricultural studies 2.3%.
Nowadays, 47% chooses social and administrative sciences and 17% education and liberal arts. Natural and exact sciences as well as agricultural studies have seen a slight decline, while the demand for master’s degrees in engineering and technology remains more or less the same. Health sciences have seen a substantial decline to 15.3% in 2004.
For PhDs the field of social administration accounts for 25.5% of enrolment, natural and exact sciences for 22%, education and liberal arts for 18.6% and engineering and technology for 18.2%. Health sciences account for 9.2% and agricultural studies for 6.5%.
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