LatinNews Daily - 24 October 2024

*Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum has announced that 330,000 new university places will be created for students over the course of her presidency “because education is a right and not a commodity”. Sheinbaum said 150,000 new places would be created at the Universidad Nacional ‘Rosario Castellanos’ and 25,000 at the Universidad de la Salud (Unis), both new educational centres created in Mexico City (CDMX) during her time as mayor (2018-2024). A further 25,000 would be created across the Universidades para el Bienestar ‘Benito Juárez’, which provide higher education to students in underprivileged areas of the country; at least 40,000 at the Universidad Tecnológico Nacional de México (TecNM), a public university with campuses across Mexico; and 30,000 at the Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN), a public research university primarily based in CDMX. Sheinbaum highlighted that two new branches of the Universidad Nacional ‘Rosario Castellanos’ would be created: one in Comitán, Chiapas state, and the other in Tijuana, Baja California, whose call for student enrolment and teacher hiring begins in November with the objective of having the first generation of students in both states by March 2025. In order to guarantee the increase in higher education enrolment, 30 new campuses of the Universidad Nacional ‘Rosario Castellanos’ will be built; ten new campuses of the Unisa; and 50 new campuses of the Universidades para el Bienestar ‘Benito Juárez’, while in the case of the TecNM and the (IPN), enrolment will be increased at existing campuses.