More than 6 thousand UNAM teachers delay their retirement to preserve their income

Lilian Hernandez Osorio

La Jornada Newspaper
Wednesday, December 24, 2025, p. 5

Of the almost 40 thousand teachers who make up the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), 16.8 percent are over 65 years old, the age at which they could retire, since the majority have more than 30 years of academic seniority. However, they remain active because only then do they retain benefits, bonuses and incentives that are lost upon retirement.

Figures from the General Directorate of Academic Personnel Affairs (DGAPA) reveal that more than 6,500 teachers – including career teachers, subject teachers, career researchers and academic technicians – are of age to begin their retirement process. However, they do not do so for various reasons, with the loss of economic stimuli being the main brake on carrying out this procedure, university sources indicated.

“My Health Education teacher is about 70 years old, he walks slowly and tells us that he was director of the prep about 30 years ago. We tell him that he should retire now, but he doesn’t want to and sometimes we make bad jokes with him. I think there are times when we do go too far with him,” said Melisa, a student at the number one Gabino Barreda National Preparatory School.

The majority of senior teachers are concentrated in faculties, national schools and research institutes, with a lesser presence in high school schools, such as high schools and Colleges of Sciences and Humanities (CCH).

In faculties this situation is more frequent

Statistics indicate that, of the 6,500 teachers over 65 years of age, just over half teach in faculties and in national schools of higher education, where there are 3,285. In research institutes there are nearly 1,200 teachers of retirement age, which is also the area where they receive the best active income, which decreases when they retire.

The data also show that the Faculty of Medicine concentrates the largest number of teachers in this age range, with nearly 650 teachers, equivalent to 14 percent of the university total over 65 years of age. They are followed by the Faculty of Law, with 277, and the Faculty of Engineering, with 268.

In the 15 high school schools, teachers over 65 years of age number more than 730: almost 450 at the CCH and around 290 at the National Preparatory School (ENP).

This age does not imply an obligation to retire, said a UNAM source; However, he considered that it could be appropriate to open spaces to younger teachers, who have greater skills to adapt to new teaching methods, including those that incorporate artificial intelligence tools.

“Academic freedom is a fundamental value at the national university,” the source added, “but it is also important that faculty strive to use platforms such as Classroom to assign readings and homework, instead of resorting exclusively to methods used more than two decades ago.”