Change in Trends in Mexican Academic Research Contributions: Engineering and Computer Sciences Case

This work is part of the competitive intelligence analysis applied to higher education institutions in Mexico, specifically in two of the 26 areas of knowledge that SCOPUS considers: Engineering and Computer Sciences which involves Information and Communications Technologies. In the USA and Canada, private universities lead in the quantity of research contributions, while in Mexico, the public universities lead. However, in the last years, there has been a change in the trend in academic research contributions which could change in future the supremacy that public universities had in the past. Just eight of +3000 private institutions, which are more prone to the use of the English language than public ones, seem to increase their contributions and investments in research. Since this century public institutions are stagnating, on the other hand, the top private institution is getting close the top public institutions in the quantity of research contributions. Although this change in trend is not enough to make North American integration smoother beyond the economic and political processes, it could be the beginning to accelerate changes. According to the UNESCO reports for countries graduating more engineers, the USA is the second and Mexico the eighth in the world.