ENES Merida Expands UNAM’s Reach in the Southeast

The Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores (ENES) Mérida reports that its academic portfolio is set to expand further. Beginning in August, ENES Merida will add undergraduate programs in Computer Engineering and Biology, broadening its disciplinary scope in response to evolving educational and workforce needs.

The ENES Mérida has emerged as a strategic pillar in the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) expansion in southeastern Mexico, consolidating its role as a regional academic hub while attracting students from across the country. Over the past decade, UNAM has further strengthened its expansion through the launch of the ENES. The project was designed to develop and sustain an interdisciplinary approach across its academic programs, supported by innovative and flexible models that promote close integration between academic training and professional practice. The first ENES campuses were established in 2012 in Leon, Guanajuato, and Morelia, Michoacan. Two additional units, ENES Merida and ENES Juriquilla, were subsequently created by resolution of the University Council at its sessions held on Aug. 30 and Dec. 13, 2017.

Since beginning operations in 2018, ENES Merida has enrolled students from 28 of Mexico’s 32 states and has served a cumulative total of 3,139 undergraduate students through 2025 across its seven bachelor’s degree programs. University authorities say this reach reflects UNAM’s broader strategy to strengthen its national presence and respond to regional development needs through public higher education.

Beginning in 2019, the school established its own governing bodies, tasked with promoting collaborative decision-making to achieve shared objectives, while ensuring that its community, distinguished by diversity as one of its defining characteristics, operates within a framework of respect and equity. In February 2020, the campus that will host ENES Merida’s academic, cultural, athletic, and administrative activities in the years ahead was inaugurated. 

The share of new students from Yucatan has increased significantly, rising from 29.7% to 55.6% of incoming cohorts, says Xavier Chiappa, Founding Director, ENES Mérida. The shift points to growing local demand and the school’s deeper integration into the state’s educational landscape.

Two of ENES Mérida’s undergraduate programs, Environmental Sciences and Sustainable Management of Coastal Zones, are accredited and together account for about 30% of students per cohort. “These programs demonstrate the university’s ability to address national and global problems through locally grounded academic offerings,” says Leonardo Lomelí, Dean, UNAM, describing the Merida campus as a project with both regional and national reach.

Lomelí says this enrollment pattern underscores the relevance of the programs to the environmental and territorial challenges facing the Yucatan Peninsula. For example, recently, the Mexican Federal Attorney’s Office for Environmental Protection (PROFEPA) has expanded a criminal complaint regarding repeated violations of a closure order at a deforested site in Kinchil, Yucatan. PROFEPA says it widened its filing before the Office of the Attorney General after confirming that closure seals and precautionary measures at the site had been deliberately breached. The agency attributes the illegal activities to Productora Nacional de Huevo (CRÍO), one of Mexico’s largest egg and poultry producers, reports MBN.

In her first address of 2026, Alicia Bárcena, Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, said that Yucatan is a priority in the government's agenda and outlined the ministry's environmental priorities. She says that SEMARNAT will continue to implement the National Environmental Restoration Program's provisions for marine and coastal ecosystems, with a specific focus on mangroves and wetlands in the Yucatan Peninsula and the Gulf of California.

“From AI integrators and data center technicians to other jobs that did not exist five years ago, these roles are now powering digital economies. Last year alone, there were over 600,000 new, AI-enabled data center jobs created globally on LinkedIn,” says LinkedIn.

Chiappa stresses the importance of bolstering students' technical skills and critical thinking, in addition to traditional classroom instruction. The annual "Our Life with AI" report, developed by Ipsos and Google, found that 63% of respondents agree that the personalization of learning through AI is a key advantage. The report also found that 37% of those surveyed in Mexico are concerned about risks to the development of critical thinking associated with AI use.

Between 2018 and 2025, the school conducted 1,494 field practices and reinforced academic support systems, including tutoring, social service guidance, and academic advising. Psychological support services were also expanded, with 652 counseling sessions provided to students.

ENES Merida has also become an active contributor to postgraduate education and research. The school participates in graduate programs in Sustainability Sciences and Marine Sciences and Limnology, hosts a master’s degree in Government and Public Affairs, and was approved in 2024 as an academic site for the Clinical Biochemistry specialization.

Research output has grown alongside teaching activities. In 2025, the institution secured funding for 17 research projects supported by UNAM’s General Directorate for Academic Personnel Affairs and recorded 64 peer-reviewed publications, along with two non-refereed works.

The faculty comprises 53 full-time academics, all members of Mexico’s National System of Researchers (SNI). Teaching accounts for 87% of their assigned workload, equivalent to 801 hours per semester. University officials noted a balanced faculty composition, with half of full-time staff under the age of 45, supporting continuity and generational renewal.

Lomelí says ENES Merida reflects UNAM’s long-term institutional design. The institution was established in 2017 to support sustainable development in southeastern Mexico through integrated teaching, research, outreach, and international engagement. Following the annual report, Lomelí met with members of the university community, interviewed candidates for the next ENES Merida director and awarded undergraduate degrees. The event was attended by federal, state, and municipal education authorities, as well as representatives from other UNAM academic entities.

“The School's presence in the educational landscape of southeastern Mexico has opened the field for developing new interdisciplinary professional training options, with regional and national relevance, aimed at the application of knowledge for the understanding and solution of complex environmental, social, and cultural phenomena,” says UNAM.