Spanish Activity report»
English Activity report»
Dear Members of the University Councils:
In compliance with the provisions of Article 12, Section XV, of the Organic Statute of the University of the Americas Puebla, the Activity Report for the 2024-2025 period has been sent to you. I request your authorization to make it available to all members of the university community through its publication on our institution's website.
I appreciate your approval. From this moment on, the report will be available to all members of the community on the institutional intranet.
We are celebrating 85 years of existence and 55 years since the inauguration of our campus in Cholula. Throughout its history, our university has stood out for the national and international prestige of its academic programs and the strength of its research programs. In the 1950s, programs in Anthropology, Archaeology, Art, Creative Writing, and Latin American Studies brought prestige to the university and made it the best “Liberal Arts College” in the country. In the 1960s, our bachelor's degrees in International Relations, Psychology, and Business, the archaeological project at Monte Albán, and the creation of the first psychological clinic for children, OIRA, distinguished us as the university for young people eager to obtain a comprehensive and innovative education and a multicultural experience.
Despite our prestige, to achieve the vision that then-President Ray Lindley had for our institution as a bridge between the cultures of North and South America, the university needed facilities commensurate with its academic prestige. This shortcoming led him to propose to the then-members of the University Council the construction of a campus with world-class facilities that would complement the institution's academic prestige.
The political conditions at the time favored this project. Accredited by the American education system and because of its origins as a member of the American community in Mexico, the university was a candidate to receive funding from USAID equivalent to half the cost of building a university campus like the one Lindley had dreamed of.
The rest would have to be found in Mexico.
Responding to the challenge, the Mary Street Jenkins Foundation committed to financing the other half of the construction on the condition that the campus be in the ancient city of Cholula. In 1970, Ray Lindley's vision and the magnificence of the Mary Street Jenkins Foundation transformed the dream into reality with the inauguration of the facilities that today celebrate 55 years of existence in the former Hacienda de Santa Catarina Mártir.
With a physical area of more than 80 hectares, academic and educational facilities of the highest international standard, and a beneficial symbiosis with the Cholulteca community, UDLAP is today a world-class university with a multicultural and international atmosphere.
But not all our history has been smooth sailing. Just as we highlight the successes achieved throughout our history, we must also point out the negative events that threatened our existence as a university on more than one occasion over the course of these 85 years.
In 1961, financial fraud led to the university's first existential crisis. In 1976, the Cholula campus was taken over by union organizations unrelated to the institution, which had to resort to temporary facilities in the city of Puebla to continue its mission. In 1985, an inter-institutional conflict led to the separation that exists today between the University of the Americas Puebla and the University of the Americas Mexico, a separation that caused great losses for UDLAP, which were resolved by the generosity of the Mary Street Jenkins Foundation, whose generosity allowed our institution to continue operating normally. In 2007, the inability of the university administration at the time to listen to the legitimate demands of its community paralyzed the institution and affected our prestige for a long period. Finally, the events of the 2020-2022 period almost ended our institution.
Despite all this, here we are celebrating 85 years of existence. It has become clear that this is a university for the ages.
Last year, I committed to working together with all of you to regain our rightful place among Mexico's higher education institutions. I stated that I was aware that the road to recovery would not be easy, but that thanks to the strength of the UDLAP community, we would successfully navigate that road.
Today, I can say that we have achieved this thanks to the joint efforts of everyone who is part of the UDLAP community.
The results of rankings and accreditations of our study programs confirm our academic quality. The ranking of the newspaper El Universal, considered the most serious in our country, placed UDLAP as the third best university and first among private universities in the country. Twenty of the twenty-one bachelor's degrees evaluated were ranked among the best among private universities in Mexico, an increase of two over the number achieved the previous year.
To date, all our bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees are nationally accredited, our five doctoral programs are part of the National Postgraduate System of the Mexican Ministry of Science, Humanities, Technology, and Innovation, and our master's programs remain among the top five in the country. The complete list of our accreditations and rankings can be found in the report that was provided to you.
In the spring semester of 2025, our academic staff reached 716 professors. All of them have postgraduate degrees, 80 percent have doctorates or the highest degree in their field, and 55 percent are members of the National System of Researchers of the SECIHTI, percentages never achieved at our institution. Our internationalization program continues, and today 16 percent of our full-time faculty are foreign nationals, something unique among private universities in the country.
Thanks to the growth of our faculty, the student-to-group ratio has been reduced to 24 and the student-to-faculty ratio to 22, levels comparable to those of American universities accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, the organization that accredits us as a university belonging to the US educational system. More importantly, despite the complications created by the COVID pandemic and the subsequent takeover of our campus, our terminal efficiency rebounded, reaching 70% of the student cohort that entered between 2020 and 2021. This terminal efficiency will translate into a graduation ceremony for nearly 2,000 young people who will receive their academic degrees, one of the largest graduating classes in the university's history.
Our commitment to youth and their education is not only reflected in outstanding statistics on retention rates, students per group, students per teacher, or terminal efficiency. Our university's true commitment is demonstrated by integrating talented young people from low-income backgrounds who have access to our education thanks to our educational support program.
Convinced that quality education is the only social equalizer that will allow for a more just nation, this academic year the university awarded a total of 940 million pesos in educational support to young people with financial needs. Thanks to this, 7,000 students (almost 80% of our student population) have financial support that allows them access to our quality education regardless of their socioeconomic status. More importantly, given the nature of our educational support, upon completion of their studies, these young people will begin their professional lives without the burden of debt that limits their personal and professional prospects, as is the case at other universities, where educational support is provided in the form of institutional loans that must be repaid by the student or their family. Our social commitment to young people and their education is unmatched and will continue to be so.
While quality teaching is our mission, applied research must be our passion.
Classified as a Level VI university by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, our university is required to be a Research Institution. Therefore, we have a solid research program that contributes to the advancement of science and technology, generates recommendations to improve the well-being of the population, and provides solutions for private companies that allow them to improve their competitiveness. During the period covered by this report, 220 research projects were carried out with the participation of 67.2% of our full-time faculty.
To consolidate the role of research in our institution, this year we created the Vice-Rector's Office for Research and Graduate Studies, whose purpose is to promote applied research and verify the quality and relevance of our graduate academic programs.
Through efficient resource management, increased financial support for students, the development of strategies that protect the rights of the university community, the formalization of contracts and intellectual property registrations, as well as the optimization of our administrative processes, UDLAP strengthened its financial, operational, and academic sustainability, ensuring an environment of equity, innovation, and institutional excellence.
The financial results show that the recovery we began in 2023 was consolidated in 2024. The surplus of 12 million pesos obtained in 2023 increased to 65 million at the end of 2024, and the cash flows from operating activities allowed us to finance investments of close to 115 million pesos. The investments made have allowed us to upgrade academic laboratories, educational facilities, teaching equipment, the library, information technology, and sports and cultural facilities, helping to create a favorable and privileged environment for the study and development of students and the academy.
Financial institutions that had disqualified us during the 2020-2022 crisis resumed their financing of the university. Today, we have financial liquidity of over 500 million pesos, which allows us to be prepared to respond adequately to any negative impact resulting from economic events that are already strongly affecting international trade in Mexico and around the world, and which predict a year of negative economic growth for our country.
The economic outlook for Mexico and the world in the 2025-2026 period requires us to remain prudent in the use of our resources, to strengthen control over the use of our financial, technological, and human resources, and to continue with the austerity and financial consolidation program initiated in the fall of 2022.
Our cultural and sporting successes are outlined in the report I have presented to you. Suffice it to say that the Christmas Concerts and other activities of UDLAP's representative cultural teams have raised the profile of the institution and its academic programs before more than 39,000 spectators in various cities across the country, with concerts and theatrical activities in the states of Mexico City, Mexico State, Oaxaca, Puebla, Quintana Roo, Tlaxcala, Veracruz, and Yucatán standing out. By 2025, we plan to consolidate this presence and increase the number of states in the republic where we will be present, such as Coahuila, Jalisco, Nuevo León, Querétaro, and San Luis Potosí, taking our name to those regions through the quality of the cultural programs that distinguish us.
Similarly, with their achievements throughout 2024 and early 2025, our representative sports teams have confirmed the excellence of our university. The renovated Templo del Dolor was the new home of our FBA team, which, as part of its reconstruction program, managed to finish its home games undefeated. The women's soccer team repeated as national champions in the TELMEX tournament for the second consecutive year and will play in the CONADEIP tournament final this weekend. The men's and women's track and field teams won their third consecutive CONADEIP tournament championship, an extraordinary achievement in this student discipline in Mexico. Our women's basketball and men's volleyball teams made it to the finals of the national tournaments in their respective disciplines and will play those finals this week.
At the university, we are convinced that encouraging young people to study science and technology degrees should be an ongoing goal. For this reason, we have created the STEM-UDLAP Representative Teams program to show our youth that we can excel not only in culture and sports, but also in the areas of science and technology through these representative new teams.
Driven by our results in national and international rankings, our national and international accreditations, the ongoing updating of our study programs, the cooperation of more than 1,300 companies in the Professional Internship Program, and a strong applied research program, in the fall semester of 2024 we reached a total of 9,011 enrolled students. More than 2,700 were new students, and 300 of these came from 40 countries, ensuring the international nature of our student body. In this regard, groups of students from France, Germany, and the United States of America stand out.
I would like to publicly acknowledge the UDLAP enrollment team, which has worked tirelessly over the years to reverse the negative impact suffered during the institutional crisis that affected us between 2020 and 2022. Their dedication and commitment are exemplary and have allowed our institution to fully recover in a very short time. But I would also like to publicly acknowledge all those members of our faculty, administrative staff, and students who have supported the activities of the enrollment team on tours and at events. Their support and participation have allowed us to demonstrate the academic quality of our university and attract a growing number of students from states other than Puebla.
As we say at this university, we are all incorporation.
I ask for a round of applause for all of them.
I could go on detailing the successes and achievements of the 2024-2025 period until I bore every one of you to exhaustion. Fortunately, that is not necessary, as you can find all the details in the report you have in your hands. I would just like to emphasize that the university's recovery and the endorsement of its academic, administrative, and financial quality are the result of the work of more than 1,900 colleagues who, day after day, tirelessly carry out their duties in accordance with our motto of providing quality service with warmth for the benefit of our more than 9,000 students. I reiterate my gratitude and appreciation to all my colleagues because, although we call this document the “Rector's Report,” it is a report on the achievements of the UDLAP community, achievements that, thanks to them, have been obtained during the period in question.
We are a community; we are all UDLAP.
Since 1939, we have not faced a crisis like the one that is now emerging on the global geopolitical horizon. The multilateral architecture created to guarantee international peace and solidarity at the end of World War II is at risk of disappearing. With it would also disappear respect for the universal values enshrined in the United Nations Charter of Human Rights. We could soon find ourselves in a situation where the rules of international law are replaced by rules imposed by the law of the strongest. The law of the jungle will prevail. Respect for equality among nations will disappear.
Faced with this scenario, many will wonder how we should respond as a university.
The answer is simple.
The purpose of our institution is not to become a political party to impose a political agenda or a civil society organization to impose a particular vision of social justice.
As a university, our obligation is to teach young people to think, not what to think.
Educating them to understand the consequences of their actions in both the short and long term.
Educating them not to discriminate against others because of the color of their skin, their origin, or their beliefs.
Educating them to accept divergent opinions by engaging in dialogue based on facts, not words.
Educating them to integrate the tools provided by science and technology to achieve a more productive and just world.
In short, educating them to be the guarantors of universal human rights and social justice in our world.
My plans to retire in 2023 were sabotaged by what I call “the post-pandemic crisis.” While this crisis demonstrated that our sense of community is strong and that we have the institutional structures in place to ensure our administration and survival as a university, it derailed my personal plans to step down as president in 2023. Considering the emergency we were facing, I agreed to continue in the presidency for two more years, but my age and family circumstances compel me to recognize that I am working overtime in this position.
At the beginning of 2025, I found myself weighing the pros and cons of continuing in the rectorship, both for personal and institutional reasons. Throughout this year, I have had conversations about this with my family, trusted friends, members of the Business Council, members of the university's Board of Trustees, colleagues inside and outside the institution, and even former colleagues at the World Bank who are now enjoying their retirement. I am grateful to all of them for their opinions, advice, and discussions, which have allowed me to arrive at a solution that partially accommodates my professional and personal interests, while also allowing for the normalization of the institutional framework that must always be the rule for our actions at the institution.
I therefore thank the members of the Business Council for their recommendation to the university's Board of Trustees, and the latter for its ratification, to endorse me as rector for the 2023-2028 term. With this solution, we comply with the regulations established in our university's Organic Statute and set a limit on my tenure in the position. My term of office must end no later than July 1, 2028. Some may think that this is too long, others that it is too short, and I think it is a little longer than I would have liked. That does not matter; what matters is that together we continue to build the university that we want and must be.
Thank you very much.