Session 24A2
Upgrading the Quality of Electrical and
Mechanical Engineers in a
Budget-Tight Economy
ABSTRACT.- One of the main problems
affecting developing countries is the lack
of economic resources for education. This
fact yields to a very complex situation
affected by very bad installations and low
salaries for teachers. Universities and
Technological Institutes tend to tackle
all branches of Engineering due political
and social reasons instead of academic and
technical goals. One way out of this
situation is the resionalization of some
areas of Engineering. In this paper the
case of Mexico, related to the graduate
and posgraduated studies in Electrical and
Mechanical Engineering, is presented. A
progressive regionalization of the college
lave1 education is proposed.
1.-INTRODUCTION.
An endemic problem in developing
countries is the very scarce economic
resources which can be allocated to
education. This situation is further
worsening for the high rate of population
growth, commonly asociated to these
countries. Political and social pressures
play an important role in these problem,
in such a way that almost every University
wants to offer all the wide spectrum of
careers both at undergraduate and
posgraduate levels. The above mentioned
situation occurs without considering
whether there is a real need for it or
not. In this context, there are many
Universities without the minimum services
such as a good library, though it is very
easy to find ill-equiped laboratories and
very pour quality underpaid lecturers.
This situation has such a deep roots into
the present educational system that very
strong measures should be taken to find a
way out of this problem. The "open
University for everybody" policy should be
abandoned. Instead, an "access to the best
qualified" policy seems more suitable.
Taking into account the above
mentioned situation, a concentration of
resources to study Electrical and
Mechanical Engineering is propossed. That
is, a regionalization in such a way that
the scarce resources, both in
infraestructure and students support, can
h e used .!.n an optimum way.
1991 Frontiers in Education Conference
575
Marcos Castellanos Aguirre
lnstituto de lnvestigaciones Electricas
Alejandro Lozano Guzman
lnstituto Mexican0 del Transporte
2.- MEXICAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM: A BRIEF
DESCRIPTION.
In Mexico, a freshman Engineering
student, has already gone through one year
of kindergarden, six years of elementary
school, three years of secondary shoool
and three years of high school (the last
ones equivalent to the high school in the
U.S.A.). In this system it is assumed that
the first ten years are compulsory.
The Mexican University level system
has three main groups [1][2]:
- Public Universities, with thirty six
schools.
- Techincal Institutes, with eighty
seven schools.
- Private Universities, with thirty
five schools.
Public Universities have the
following characteritics:
They are autonomous: they have legal
status to stablish their
administrative procedures, they can
choose their president, they
institute their admission standards,
their academic curricula, their
faculty members promotion standards,
and their spending priorities.
A great number of these Universities
also provide the preparatory school.
Most of them follow the French model
and they are organized in schools and
faculties.
Three quarters of their faculty works
at the Universities as a part-time
basis, and most of them do not have
graduate studies.
Their budget is almost 100% provided
by both the state and federal
government.
A great number of these Universities
offers a huge variety of studies.
This situation is not always
 supported for academic reasons, but
for budget-incrase pourposes.
Technical Institutes follow a similar
working scheme as Universities, though
with one key difference, their budget and
their administrative staff are controlled
by the Secretary of Public Education.
Private Universities have several
differencies compared with Public
Universities. The main ones are: age (age
of foundation), size, economic resources,
number of lecturers per student and very
few offering technical graduate studies.
This type of Institutions has grown in the
last few years due to population growth
and the supposedly low academic level in
Public Institutions.
Private Universities offer studies
according to well supported market
research policies, thus some how their
activity is already regionalized. One key
point between Public and Private
Universities is the lack of research work
in the Public Institutions. This
difference limits the social and academic
importance of Private Universities, though
this situations is changing rapidly over
the last ten years.
There is not an easy way for a
prospective student, hoping to enter
either a University or a Technical
Institute, of knowing the great variety of
studies he or she can pursuet according to
their personal interests. At present, all
conditions are set in such a way that the
student is bound to remain in its own
area, thus crating this fictitious need of
"all subjects in all Universities".
Considering the above mentioned'
situation it seems necessary to have a
national system evaluation at Universities
and Techincal Institutes. This would allow
to carry out studies at any Institution
with the same national standard.
3.- ELECTRICAL ANDMECHANICAL ENGINEERING
IN MEXICO: ACADEMIC PRESENT
SITUATION.
Economic constraints have had a great
impact upon the Public University System
in Mexico. This has produced a lowering of
academic standards because of the low
numbers of full time faculty and lack of
rsources for buying new laboratory
equipment and to keep a good library.
This general situation is further
entangled because in some areas of Mexico,
two or three small Public Universities
and/or Technical Institutes offer studies
of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering,
thus making almost useless the very scarce
resources available.
Low levels of academic achivement
among Electrical and Mechanical
Engineering student might be due to:
1991 Frontlers in Education Conference
576
A great extent faculty members are
only transmitting information instead
of integrating research, teaching,
and practice of engineering.
Lack of well equiped laboratories and
good libraries.
Admission criteria bound to quantity
instead to quality.
Admission constraints based on local
policies instead on academic
standards.
Lack of a close relation between
University and Industry on research
projects .
3.1 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION.
At present [3] , studies on Electrical
and Mechanical Engineering (EME) are
offered in thirty one states. In twenty
seven states and the Federal District,
these studies are offered in more than one
Institution. This situation causes a very
low student population in 50 % of these
Institutions. Most of the students are
concentrated in six states whose EME
student population is five times greater
than that of remaining states. This is
shown in figure 1.
Mexico City alone has more than fifty
percent of the EME students while the rest
are mainly in Jalisco and Nuevo Leon.
Graduate students [ 4 ] [ 5 ] in EME are
concentrated following the same pattern as
the undergraduated sutdents as shown in
figure 2. In 1990 there were 388 graduated
students in Electrical Engineering (358 in
Master's programme and 31 in Doctorate),
and 206 in Mechanical Engineering (201 in
Master's programme and 5 in Doctorate).
3.2 WHERE IS CONCENTRATED EME ?
The Universidad Nacional Autonoma de
Mexico (UNAM) in Public and some Private
Universities and the Instituto Politecnico
Nacional (IPN) in Technical Institutes,
have lead the way as far as EME curriculum
design is concerned. However, during the
last ten years other Universities have
shown a very good academic performance
thus coming up as a posible regional
leaders in EME.
In Electrical Engineering, Electrical
Systems Operation has advanced
significantly at the Instituto Politecnico
Nacional (IPN) in Mexico City. Electrical
Equipment Design has received great
attention at the Instituto Tecnologico y
de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey
(ITESM) in Monterrey in the north of the
country. Electrical Transmission studies
have a very good standard in the Instituto
Tecnologico de la Laguna (ITL) also in the
north.
 L _ _
FIGURE 2 .

Mechanical Engineering has have a identified in any other area of Mechanical

strong development in the centre of the
country. Design Engeneering has a very
good level at the Universidad de
Guanajuato (UG) and the Institute
Tecnologico de Celaya (ITC). Manufacture
Engeneering is well established at both UG
and ITC as well as in the north at ITESM.
No other higher than average school-canbe
Engineering.
In graduate EME studies both patterns
described above are followed.
It is important to pinpoint that the
highest quality studies available in EME
are very well localized. It is also clear
that this highest quality it is not
necessarily-localizedin Mexico City,

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577
 4.- REGIONALIZATION PROPOSAL.
The regionalization proposal for
studying EME has the following sine-qua-
non conditions:
a) Any hindrance related with rivalry
among Institutions or geographical
zones should be eliminated.
b) A good grants programme in order to
have the best students well settled
in any part of the country.
c) The proposal region's Institutions
must be well equiped with
laboratories, library a good research
programme and solid University-
Industry projects.
d) A well established national
University evaluation programme, in
order to accredit their quality..
Taking into account these points the
following activities are proposed:
EME studies could be offered in six
Mexican States: Chihuahua, Nuevo
Leon, Veracruz, Jalisco, Guanajuato
and Mexico State. This is shown in
figure 3 . It is supposed that as soon
as the regions get support, student
population will decrease in EME in
Mexico City.
FIGURE 3
1991 Frontiers in Education Conference
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ii) These six states are distributed in
such a way that five regions can be
identified, North, Northeast, West,
Center and East. Regionalization is
propdsed taking into account budget
constrains. However, technical
improvement and specialization shall
be obtained by the working groups
under the new environment.
iii) Publication of a booklet, describing
the Institutions of the six proposed
regions. This booklet also should
explain research and job
opportunities to a national level.
iv) Integration of research and industry
projects to provide support to
undergraduate studies.
For regionalization pourpouses it is
assummed there is no difference between
Universities and Technical Institutes.
As the free trade agreement among
Canada, United States and Mexico is under
way, new challenges will have to be taken
in EME education. Thus the regionalization
proposed could overcome the lack of
economic resources and yet still be
competitive in thes new international
market.
 5.- CONCLUSIONS.

From the analysis presented it is

suggested that:
In a budget tight economy, economic
resources concentration could help to
improve EME education.
As fewer schools would operate, some
savings can be made. This money can
be used to give grants to students.
The number of part time students
could be reduced.
Low levels of EME students
performance, it is not a problem of M. CASTELLANOS AGUIRRE
curricular design but one of low Received the B.Sc. degree i n Electrical Engineering
quality lecturers, ill equiped
laboratories and very poor library at the Universidad Aut6noma de Guadalajara, MExico
support. in 1978, the M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering
at the Escola Federal de Engenharia de Itajuba,
As soon as the economic situation Brasil in 1980.
improves more Universities should Since 1981 he has been with the Instituto de Inves-
open EME studies. This would avoid tigaciones ElEctricas in Cuernavaca, MExico. He is
excessive growth of the regions currently head o f Electrical Department at the
initially proposed. Universidad Aut6noma del Estado de Morelos.
His current interests include systems simulation,
The number of Electrical and industrial process control and Electrical Enginee-
Mechanical students, at both levels ring education.
undergraduate and graduate, could be
multiplied in order to increase the
relation of Engineers/population
(actualy 15 times lower than in USA).

A. LOZANO GUZMAN

Received the B.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering

REFERENCES at the Universidad Nacional Aut6noma de Mgxico
(UNAM) in 1974, the M.Sc. degree in Mechanical Eng.
CIDE, "Estrategia para la at the UNAM in 1977, the Ph.D. in Mechanical Eng. at
calidad de la educacion superior en the ~~~~~~~l~ upon T~~~ university.
- Mexico Dec. 1990.
Mexico1v. He has published more than 30 papers
. . about vibrations
applied mechanics and dynamic of systems. He is mem-
T. Pacheco~ R. Arizmendir IfLa ber of the ASME. He is currently head of Industrial
planeacion de la education superior Equipment Division at the Instituto Mexican0 del
en Mexico y su context0 economico, Transporte.
politico y educativov1. - Vinculacion
Oct-Dic. 1989.
ANUIES, IIAnuario estadistico 1990
Licenciatura". - Mexico, 1990
ANUIES, lvAnuario estadistico 1990
Maestria".- Mexico, -1990
R. Canales et all , IIDiagnostico del
posgrado en Ingenieria Electrica
opcion PotenciaI1.- Ciencia y
Desarrollo CONACYT Sept. 1989.

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