Lilian Hernandez Osorio
La Jornada Newspaper
Monday, January 5, 2026, p. 11
At the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), professors with 30 or more years of academic seniority predominate, unlike those who have less than two years as professors, figures from the institution itself reveal.
Of the 43,410 teachers registered by the General Directorate of Academic Personnel Affairs (DGAPA), 18.3 percent are made up of teachers with 30 or more years of seniority, equivalent to 7,948 teachers, who could even retire, but do not do so because this means losing incentives and financial bonuses or because they do not have a career teaching position to obtain it.
However, this retirement process has given way to the second most prevalent group of teachers being made up of those who have barely two years of seniority, since they total 6,976, equivalent to 16 percent of the entire academic staff of the national university.
A breakdown by the DGAPA shows that the minority group of teachers by years served in this role is those who have been teaching classes between 24 and 26 years, with 2,046, which represents 4.7 percent.
Meanwhile, 2,115 teachers have been between 27 and 29 years of seniority, and a similar number is made up of teachers who have been teaching classes for between 21 and 23 years.
The data also indicates that 4,929 teachers have been working in this academic role for between three and five years, and another 4,741 have accumulated between six and eight years.
Regarding the maximum level of studies of the UNAM teaching staff, 22.7 percent have a doctorate, that is, on average one in every five professors at the institution has this academic degree, totaling close to 10 thousand.
While more than 11,400 teachers have a master’s degree, equivalent to 26.4 percent of the total academic staff, and 13,762 have only a bachelor’s degree, equivalent to 31.7 percent of the total academic staff.
Most of them are subject
However, 61 percent of the teachers are subject teachers, who do not have the same benefits and incentives as career teachers, so they may have been teaching their subjects for years, even more than 30 years, but the fact of not having a position as a full or associate professor prevents them from enjoying a retirement like these last two academic figures have, since they have been working under non-definitive contracts, so they do not have that benefit.
Regarding seniority, almost half of the professors with 30 or more years of teaching are in faculties and schools of higher education, adding up to 3,488 of the 7,948 with these years in service.
When reviewing the number of teachers with 30 or more years of seniority by academic entity, the Institute of Engineering has 92 and is followed by the Institute of Philological Research, with 83, and Biology, which has 71.
However, the majority of the most senior professors are in the Faculty of Medicine, with 491; It is followed by the Faculty of Higher Studies (FES) Iztacala, with 432; the FES Zaragoza, with 389, and the Faculty of Engineering, with 371.
