In June 2025, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) experienced a significant shift in its global academic standing, falling out of the top 100 in the QS World University Rankings for the 2026 edition. Once ranked 94th in 2024 and 93rd in 2023, UNAM dropped to 136th place, marking its lowest position in over a decade.
The QS World University Rankings evaluate over 1,500 institutions worldwide based on indicators such as academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty-student ratio, internationalization, research impact, and sustainability. While UNAM maintained strong scores in academic reputation (99.2) and employability (97.9), it struggled in areas like international student presence (5.4) and learning experience (47.1), which contributed to its overall decline.
Experts attribute this drop not only to UNAM’s internal challenges but also to broader regional trends. Latin American universities, including those in Mexico, have faced increasing difficulty attracting global talent and boosting research output—two metrics that gained more weight in this year’s ranking methodology.
Despite the setback, UNAM remains the highest-ranked university in Mexico and continues to be a cornerstone of higher education in Latin America. However, its fall from the top 100 has sparked debate within academic circles about the need for renewed investment in internationalization, innovation, and research infrastructure.
The 2026 rankings were once again dominated by institutions from the United States and the United Kingdom, with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) retaining the top spot, followed by Imperial College London and Stanford University.
UNAM’s decline serves as a wake-up call for Mexican higher education, highlighting the growing competitiveness of the global academic landscape and the need to adapt to evolving international standards.
Source: OEM
