Quality assurance
Jun 30, 2010
There are large differences in quality of higher education institutes in Mexico. There are universities that have a high reputation all over the world and offer very high quality education; on the other hand, there are dozens of universities that are called ‘patitos’, which means ‘little ducks’, indicating the very poor quality.
Besides, it is difficult to determine the quality of a higher education institute; unlike in the Netherlands, there is not one national accreditation system that sets the standard. In order to determine the quality of a higher education institute in Mexico one should look at several criteria. Just to mention some important criteria:
RVOE
Public universities are autonomous which allows them to create their own syllabus. In contrast, private universities need to have the official recognition RVOE (Reconocimiento de Validez Oficial de Estudios) of each program by the Mexican Ministry of Education.
CIEES and COPAES
Responsibility for the evaluation and accreditation of the programs of both private and public higher education institutes has been allocated to CIEES (Comités Interinstitucionales para la Evaluación de la Educación Superior) and COPAES (Consejo para la acreditacion de la educación superior) which are organisms recognized by the government through the Mexican Ministry of Education. A list of accredited programs appears on the page of COPAES.
FIMPES
FIMPES evaluates private higher education institutions. 21 members of FIMPES have the “Registry of Excellence” issued by the Mexican Ministry of Education in agreement with FIMPES. This is the maximum distinction of quality as a member of FIMPES.
PNP of Conacyt
The postgraduate programs (Master and PhD) listed in the PNP (Padrón Nacional de Posgrado) have the recognition of academic quality by the Mexican Ministry of Education and CONACyT, the National Council for Science and Technology.
In general, if you go to Mexico as an exchange student, you don’t have to worry about the quality of a higher education institute. Our experience is that the Mexican universities that Dutch universities have exchange agreements with are of good quality.
If you are you deciding to go on your own to Mexico, please contact our office. We can check some of the quality criteria for you. Besides, we have agreements with important organizations here, like the Association of Universities and the Association for International Education, that can help us with this issue as well.