National Autonomous University of Mexico

The National Autonomous University of Mexico (, UNAM) is a public research university in Mexico. A portion of (University City: UNAM's main campus in Mexico City) is a UNESCO World Heritage site that was designed and decorated by some of Mexico's best-known architects and painters of the 20th century. The campus also hosted the main events of the 1968 Summer Olympic Games. All Mexican Nobel laureates are alumni or faculty of UNAM. UNAM is known for its rigorous admissions, with acceptance rates often under 10%. Its research and education are also globally recognized for their excellence and impact. UNAM was founded, in its modern form, on 22 September 1910 by Justo Sierra as a secular alternative to its predecessor, the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico (the first Western-style university in North America, founded in 1551). UNAM was also the birthplace of the student movement of 1968. History Its founding goes back to 1551, when Charles I, king of Spain (Charles V, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire) decreed the founding of the University of Mexico. The university was renamed on 22 September 1910 by Justo Sierra, then minister of education in the Porfirio Díaz regime, who sought to create a very different institution from its 19th-century precursor, the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico, which had been founded on 21 September 1551 by a royal decree signed by Crown Prince Phillip II on behalf of Charles I of Spain and brought to a definitive closure in 1865 by Maximilian I of Mexico. Instead of reviving what he saw as an anachronistic institution with strong ties to the Roman Catholic Church, he aimed to merge and expand Mexico City's decentralized colleges of higher education (including former faculties of the old university) and create a new university, secular in nature and national in scope, that could reorganize higher education within the country, serve as a model of positivism and encompass the ideas of the dominant Mexican liberalism. The project initially unified the Fine Arts, Business, Political Science, Jurisprudence, Engineering, Medicine, Normal, and the National Preparatory schools; its first rector was Joaquin Eguía y Lis.The new university's challenges were mostly political, due to the ongoing Mexican Revolution and the fact that the federal government had direct control over the university's policies and curriculum; some resisted its establishment on philosophical grounds.