A Royal Academy of Engineering report reveals that Mexico has seen the strongest growth among all OECD countries in the number of engineering graduates for the period 2008-12.
Commissioned by the United Kingdom’s Royal Academy of Engineering, Engineering and Economic Growth: A Global View, shows Mexico tripled the number of engineering, manufacturing, and construction graduates over the time period, finishing out at 71,300 representing 0.06 percent of the population.
Additionally, Mexico joined Hungary and Turkey with the most notable increases in number of female engineering graduates. In each of these countries, the number of female engineering graduates increased by more than 150%.
According to the RAE report, one factor that might account for the dramatic increase is government policy introduced by former president Felipe Calderon. Aiming to attract more people to the engineering profession, the Mexican government increased capacity and more higher education facilities, building 140 universities dedicated to science and technology.
More than 50 of those universities were established in Baja California, which invests more in education than any other state in Mexico and which also benefits from direct access to Southern California´s graduate and postgraduate programs.
Tijuana is home to more than 35 public and private universities and 186 technical and high schools that offer accredited programs in engineering, sciences, IT, business and many other areas. The city produced the highest number of engineering graduates in the state, with 14,832 graduates between 2014 and 2015.
Collaborative efforts between Tijuana and San Diego universities also bolster the region’s growing reputation as a science and engineering hub. Recently, researchers from UC San Diego officially launched the CaliBaja Center for Resilient Materials and Systems signing an MOU between UC San Diego, the Baja Aerospace Cluster, the Baja Biomedical Devices Cluster, and CANIETI.
The center brings together researchers from UC San Diego, the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), and also the Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education. It will focus on the development of materials for a wide range of applications, including defense, nuclear, pharmaceutical and aerospace, that can function at ultra-high temperatures, under extreme pressures and deformations, radiation, and other extreme conditions.
