Educational Opportunities for Mexico in Its Integration with the United States

Mexico is the United States’ primary trading partner. This has been achieved through a long process of economic and trade cooperation over the past 30 years. Without a doubt, Mexico has fully leveraged its proximity to the most dynamic market.

However, in the educational field, the same effect has not occurred. As Philip Altbach notes in his 1994 essay, “NAFTA and Higher Education: The cultural and educational dimensions of trade,” science and technology have not been considered essential components in the North American trade integration project that began with the North American Free Trade Agreement, now the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Other agreements, such as the European Union’s, have done so, with programs like Bologna and Erasmus, yielding highly positive academic results.

The United States has the best university system in the world, according to the 2024 QS World University Rankings, with 27 of the top 50 universities worldwide. Some Asian and Arab countries, as well as some African nations, have shown significant progress in recent years, according to rankings from QS and Times Higher Education. In contrast, Latin America has grown relatively little. In this context, Mexico also has opportunities for improvement in its universities, and its proximity to the United States can open doors for positive development. If progress has been made in the economic sphere, the same can be done in education.

This proposal aims to lay the groundwork for Mexico to find a path over the next six years to benefit from the U.S. higher education system. To do so, Mexico requires three structural changes in its educational dynamics:

• Universal English learning
• Curriculum modernization to incorporate technology and innovation
• Competency-based curriculum focused on labor market needs

Student Exchange Between the United States and the World

The annual Open Doors census, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and conducted by the Institute of International Education, shows how geopolitics impacts educational exchange between countries. As shown in Table 1, India displaced China as the leading country of origin for international students in the United States for the 2023/24 academic year, linked to the trade and strategic dispute between the United States and China.

Together, these two countries send more than half (54%) of the international students in the United States, while Mexico ranks a distant 11th with 15,474 students, behind nations like Nigeria and Brazil. It is even below countries with significantly smaller populations, such as South Korea and Canada (while Mexico has a population of 129.5 million people, South Korea and Canada have populations of 51.8 million and 38.8 million, respectively).

Table 1. Main Countries of Origin of International Students in the United States in 2023/24

Source: Institute of International Education (2024). Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange. https://opendoorsdata.org/

Additionally, despite the short distance, Mexico was only the 13th most popular destination for U.S. students, with just 4,339 American students in 2022/23. The vast majority (64%) chose to study in Europe, particularly Italy (15%), the United Kingdom (13%) and Spain (12%). In the Americas, Costa Rica stood out, hosting 6,558 U.S. students (2%).

As shown in Figure 1, student exchange between Mexico and the United States declined significantly in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although there has been some recovery, numbers have not returned to pre-pandemic levels, which had stabilized at approximately 16,000 Mexican students in the United States and around 5,000 U.S. students in Mexico.

Figure 1. Mexico as a Country of Origin and Destination for International Students

Source: Institute of International Education (2024). Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange. https://opendoorsdata.org/

Global Crisis in Higher Education

We are witnessing a true crisis in higher education worldwide. It is time to reconsider the role and purpose of higher education and attempt to restore the sense of inclusion and social equity. Universities are fundamental tools for social mobility and a means to improve equity and opportunities for women and girls. Education in technology is essential.

One of the main challenges for higher education is balancing its critical role with the need to secure funding. Universities should strive to diversify their funding sources. In Mexico, over the past 25 years, public university investment per student has decreased, making it the lowest among OECD countries ($3,500 per student compared to an average of $14,200).

In this context, the educational opportunities that the United States offers Mexican students become strategically relevant. Expanding access to exchange programs, scholarships, and binational agreements can help mitigate Mexico’s higher education crisis while fostering technological skills development and promoting social inclusion. Taking advantage of these opportunities not only boosts academic and career mobility for young Mexicans but also strengthens educational ties between both countries, generating a positive long-term impact on equity and sustainable development.

Educational Internationalization

Mexico and the United States have different perspectives on the internationalization of their education systems. U.S. universities view internationalization as a business opportunity, as receiving international students generates additional revenue. This is not the case in Mexico, where internationalization is considered an area for collaboration, but insufficient funds are allocated to it.

It is necessary to promote higher education exchange as a focal point of the bilateral relationship, particularly for the United States. Unlike many Mexicans who have the interest but not the resources to study in the United States, Americans do not see Mexico as a study destination despite its high-quality higher education options.

Some ways to make binational academic exchange more attractive include implementing flexible curricula for exchange programs, enhancing dual-degree programs, and organizing forums on topics such as artificial intelligence, climate change, and global issues. Addressing language limitations in Mexico for American students is also important, as English-taught programs are not as common as in Asian and European countries. Supporting specific cooperation projects related to entrepreneurship is also crucial.

To reduce the financial burden on students seeking to study abroad, establishing Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) programs is recommended. These programs bring students from different countries together to collaborate on online projects. This cost-effective and practical system is already functioning in several Mexican universities and only requires the goodwill of a Mexican and a U.S. professor.

Technology exchange should be part of higher education collaboration between both nations. Moreover, industry and business collaboration should be improved to meet human and technological resource needs. Simultaneously, research should be linked to local and regional problems. Universities must cooperate to understand artificial intelligence and its role in education.

The pandemic highlighted the most urgent issues: the educational and digital divide, access to technological resources and growing inequality. Support for initiatives accelerating research on advanced educational platforms and methodologies should continue while fostering long-term impacts on innovation and digitalization.

Research in the United States and Mexico

Mexico is the world’s 14th largest economy but ranks 23rd in scientific publication output, according to the World Bank Group. In Latin America, Mexico is second only to Brazil, yet its investment in Science and Technology as a percentage of GDP is lower than that of Chile (0.35%), Argentina (0.4%), Cuba (0.5%), and Brazil (1.3%). Mexico also has fewer researchers and publications per capita than Argentina or Brazil, according to a 2021 UNESCO Science Report.

While Mexico has little relevance to the United States in terms of research, the United States is highly relevant to Mexico. While Mexico represents only 2% of U.S. international research collaborations, 40% of Mexican researchers’ international collaborations involve the U.S.

Many topics on the bilateral agenda, such as security, migration, health and nearshoring, could be strengthened through joint research between universities in both countries and coordinated collaboration among researchers.

Recommendations

• Leverage the elevation of Mexico’s National Council for Humanities, Sciences and Technologies (Conacyt) to a federal ministry to restore U.S. scholarship programs and strengthen strategic alliances with major U.S. university systems, such as the University of California’s 10 campuses and the University of Texas’ 9 campuses.
• Launch a lobbying campaign for certain U.S. states to allow in-state tuition for Mexican students. Significant progress was made in California with the passage of Bill 91, enabling community colleges to offer in-state tuition to low-income Mexicans living near the border. Similar initiatives should be pursued, especially in border states and states with large Mexican populations such as Illinois.
• Design academic programs aligned with nearshoring trends. Talent is key to supply chain relocation, making it a shared interest with the United States that could facilitate funding. An example is the collaboration between CETYS University and the University of Arizona on specialized semiconductor programs.
• Establish subregional working groups to facilitate dialogue among local leaders and promote initiatives beyond federal interests. For instance, UC San Diego’s Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies and the Consulate General of Mexico in San Diego have organized periodic meetings over the past three years to address key issues of interest in the CaliBaja region, including cross-border education. Other border regions could benefit from similar initiatives, as the Mexican consulate in Albuquerque is already exploring.
• Strengthen exchange programs with simpler visa and funding requirements, such as executive, summer and language courses. Greater use can also be made of internationalization from home initiatives through the expansion of virtual programs and satellite campuses, such as Texas State University’s campus in Querétaro.
• Strengthen faculty exchange programs. In this regard, Mexican professors in the United States can serve as a bridge in this relationship by participating in English teaching programs in Mexico. This could be especially beneficial for Mexican Americans interested in learning or improving their Spanish. Some existing programs that could be strengthened include the Mexico-U.S. Teacher Exchange Program (PROBEM) and private volunteer initiatives.

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