Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana

After the historic 1968 Tlatelolco massacre in Mexico, and other subsequent movements in favor of education and social improvements, the need for comprehensive education reform in Mexico was evident.

In 1973, during the administration of President Luis Echeverria Alvarez, the National Association of Universities and Institutions of Higher Education (ANUIES) presented a document to the President noting the need to establish a new university in the Mexico City's metropolitan area, taking into consideration issues such as increasing student demand and the increasing failure of existing universities to admit more students.

It was then proposed that the nascent university project also constituted an opportunity to modernize higher education in the country. The expected characteristics of the new university were for it to be public, metropolitan, independent, in addition to having innovative educational and organizational terms.

It is under such expectations that the law comes into force for the creation of the Autonomous Metropolitan University, on January 1 1974. On January 10 of that year architect Pedro Ramirez Vazquez was appointed as the first Rector of the UAM.

The University consisted at the moment of its creation of three units, which are located in Iztapalapa, Azcapotzalco and Xochimilco, with the idea of promoting decentralization and allowing the full development of each. Empirically, scientific research majors were located in Iztapalapa (UAM-I) Unit, the traditional careers such as civil engineering and architecture at the Azcapotzalco (UAM-A) Unit and the area of health in the Xochimilco Unit (UAM -X). Subsequently, it was decided that their internal organization would be composed of Divisions and Academic Departments, creating a contrast with the Schools and Colleges of existing universities. Each Division would group different areas of knowledge and each Academic Department related disciplines, in order to give a flexible structure that prevents the lag that education had suffered in relation to the progress of science.

The first Rector of the Iztapalapa Unit was Dr. Alonso Fernandez González and began operations on September 30, 1974. In turn, the Rector of the Azcapotzalco Unit was Dr. Juan Casillas García de León, which opened its doors on November 11, 1974. For the Xochimilco Unit the first Rector was Dr. Ramon Villarreal Perez, initiating teaching also on November 11, 1974. Recently, the possibility of creating a new unit of the UAM was analyzed.

On April 26, 2005 the Academic College of the institution approved the creation of the Cuajimalpa campus, appointing in June of that year Dr. Fresán Magdalena Orozco as the first Rector. The activities of the Unit officially began on September 14, 2005, using different locations, at first at the Universidad Iberoamericana. Then he took three temporary facilities: Baja California, Artifice and Constituents Constituents adding a fourth in 647. His final location was achieved in 2014 on the grounds of "Scorpio", ancient land of the Zona Especial Forestal y de Repoblación Bosques Industriales La Venta, which had not been built by the lack of legal certainty and the opposition of local people to Ocotal forest development in La Venta, Cuajimalpa.