Western Institute of Technology and Higher Education

ITESO, Jesuit University of Guadalajara (Western Institute of Technology and Higher Education by its initials in Spanish)
ITESO, Universidad Jesuita de Guadalajara (Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente, AC)

Motto	El Espíritu Vivifica
Established	1957
Type	Private Non Profit Civil Association
Students	11,400
Postgraduates	21
Location	Tlaquepaque, Jalisco, Mexico
Campus	Urban, 98.84 acres (40.0 ha)
Athletics	INTERSUJ, CONADEIP
Affiliations	AUSJAL
Website	www.iteso.mx

ITESO, University Western Institute of Technology and Higher Education (in Spanish: ITESO, Universidad Jesuita de Guadalajara (Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente),—distinct from the state University of Guadalajara—is a Jesuit university in the Western Mexican state of Jalisco, located in the municipality of Tlaquepaque in the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area.

The university has approximately 10,000 students and offers academic options including Civil Engineering and Architecture, Food Engineering, Education, Electronic Engineering, International Business, International Relations, Chemical Engineering, Philosophy and Social Studies and Networks and Telecommunications Engineering. The university is affiliated to the Jesuit University System, which includes the Iberoamerican Universities in Acapulco, Mexico City, Jaltepec, León, Torreón, Puebla and Tijuana.

ITESO was first conceived by a group of Jesuits, families and local businesspeople who sought to lay the material and spiritual foundations for a different kind of university. Their proposal was to combine professional training with the education of men and women who would go out into the world with a firm sense of social responsibility and justice.

ITESO is the only university in Jalisco with the Registration as an Institution of Academic Excellence, awarded by Mexico’s Ministry of Public Education. It is the first private university of the central-western region of Mexico to offer graduate programs of excellence recognized by the National Council of Science and Technology (Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología, CONACYT) and the Mexican Society for the Public Communication of Science and Technology (SOMEDICYT). Among private universities in the country, ITESO has the greatest number of professors in the National System of Researchers (SNI), the greatest number of books published, as well as an outstanding library.

Business projects

ITESO has a close relationship with businesses in the region through two types of extension activities:

Business extension, which fosters ongoing strategic alliances among independent businesses for the purpose of reaching common objectives in the development of competitive capacity.

Academic extension, which sets up internships in the productive sector as learning experiences for university students.

ITESO also has an enterprise incubation program that provides expert consulting for new business start-ups.

The Institutional Program for Managing Innovation and Technology (Programa Institucional para la Gestión de la Innovación y la Tecnología, PROGINNT), in conjunction with industry and different support organizations such as the Avance Program of the CONACYT, the Fund for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses (PYME) of the Ministry of the Economy and the State Council for Science and Technology (COECYTJAL), helps regional organizations to increase their competitiveness through proper technological management. A three-phase model is used: technological diagnosis, strategic and technological planning, and administration of technological innovation projects.

This program not only coordinates the Certificate Program in Innovation and Technology Management, which seeks to foment change in the local business culture, but also offers the services of a technology-based enterprise incubator for generating high-tech business initiatives. The model provides key consulting services for the new businesses, and focuses on such sectors as food processing, pharmaceuticals, software development and electronic design, all identified as priority areas for the Jalisco economy.

It also offers the services of its Center for Business Consulting, to help businesses implement mechanisms for managing technology, and a Center for Competitive Intelligence, which does technology and market research, including trend studies; forecasts; strategic, market and patent studies; corporate and sectorial profiles; and other services.

Educational partnerships

Regis University and ITESO have created a joint MBA program to prepare Latin American and U.S. Latino executives/entrepreneurs for the rising opportunities of emerging economies around the world. Many future economic opportunities will depend on innovative economic policies and creative business strategies that unravel the challenges associated with emerging firms and markets in the global economy.

This is the first graduate business program in Latin America designed to develop successful entrepreneurial and business skills for emerging markets. The program also covers innovative strategies to enter and expand operations in developed markets. Economists and business experts agree that emerging economies such as China, Brazil, Russia, India and many others, are reshaping globalization and renewing horizons for the world economy.

Social Service projects

Among the most significant sources of experience and learning for students are the social service projects, which consolidate ITESO’s commitment to social transformation by forming leaders that are sensitive to the region’s and country’s needs.

Some of the over 200 social projects in which the University participates are:

"Southern Region", sustainable development in southern Jalisco

"Sierra Wixárika", protection of the Huichol Indians’ territory and environment, improvement of productive systems, education and health

"Alternative Rural Financing System", which offers poor families from rural areas of Jalisco organizational, administrative and financial tools for raising their standard of living

Environmental projects

ITESO proposes feasible alternatives for problems affecting our surroundings, from an environmental and sustainable development perspective. Environmental programs within the University such as "ITESO, Sustainable Community," and its facilities in the Primavera Forest, complement rural sustainable development projects in impoverished regions of Jalisco, Chiapas and Veracruz. Since the year 2000, ITESO has taken part in a number of reforestation projects, as well as campaigns for preventing and combating forest fires, and received the Environmental Conservation Merit award in 2002. This recognition is given by the University of Guadalajara and the Citizens for the Environment.

External links

ITESO (Spanish)