DistantNews
Support us
🇲🇽 Mexico /Culture & Society

UNAM ends online entrance exams and will use in-person tests for high school and undergraduate admissions

From El Universal · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Documents & data Under investigation
  • UNAM Rector Leonardo Lomelí Vanegas said entrance exams for high school and undergraduate programs will be held in person until online testing can be reliably guaranteed.
  • A university review found poor planning, coordination failures and operational gaps in the 2026 undergraduate admissions process.
  • UNAM will revise admissions procedures, continue investigations into possible responsibility and announce measures based on the review’s recommendations.

The National Autonomous University of Mexico will stop using online entrance exams for high school and undergraduate admissions for now. Tests will be held in person at multiple locations in Mexico and abroad, using preloaded electronic devices.

Rector Leonardo Lomelí Vanegas said the change would remain in place until the university has the conditions needed to guarantee a reliable online examination. He made the announcement while receiving the final report from the technical commission that reviewed the 2026-2027 undergraduate admissions process.

Lomelí acknowledged the university’s failures during the remote selection contest. “The University and its rector recognize and assume the failures and errors that may have occurred in the remote undergraduate selection process,” he said. He added that a control examination had been introduced to provide certainty to the admissions process.

The rector’s office will review and modify the structure and procedures for undergraduate admissions, particularly those involving the General Directorate of School Administration and the Coordination for Educational Evaluation, Innovation and Development. The university is also considering a technical advisory committee made up of specialists to support evaluation models aligned with international practices.

The commission found a lack of planning and coordination, along with validation gaps and operational omissions that produced atypical results. It said the online exam model had been designed around earlier in-person, printed tests and proved unsuitable for remote testing across 24 sessions over three weekends. The system also failed to adequately address the risk that questions could be extracted and circulated between sessions, while monitoring mechanisms did not detect all prohibited behavior. Investigations into responsibility will continue until they conclude.

The University and its rector recognize and assume the failures and errors that may have occurred in the remote undergraduate selection process

· Leonardo Lomelí VanegasThe UNAM rector acknowledged problems identified in the remote admissions contest.
About this summary

Originally published by El Universal in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

More Stories

From Our Blog