UNAM orders 58,000 applicants to resit

Mexico’s National Autonomous University, known as UNAM, said this week that about 58,000 applicants will have to retake its undergraduate entrance exam in person after the school flagged irregularities in this year’s online test. The move followed the university’s first fully remote admissions exam, held over several days in late May and early June with AI-assisted proctoring and a lockdown browser, according to university materials and multiple reports. (arstechnica.com) About 160,000 applicants took that exam, and the university later concluded that the original results could not be relied on for all candidates. (yahoo.com) The decision has drawn attention because UNAM is Mexico’s largest and most competitive public university, and because the scale of the retest is unusually large for a high-stakes admissions process. The university has described the redo as a “control exam,” and reports said the in-person result will replace the original online score for affected applicants. ### Why did UNAM decide the original results could not stand? UNAM published the first-round results on July 17, and concerns escalated after score patterns appeared unusually strong, according to Mexico News Daily and other reports. Raúl Rojas, a professor of mathematics, artificial intelligence and statistics, told NPR, as quoted by Mexico News Daily, that his conclusion was that “almost half of the students were cheating when taking the exam online.” (arstechnica.com) Times Higher Education reported that 16.3% of candidates scored 100 points or more in the online exam, compared with between 1.4% and 2.2% in recent years. (dgae.unam.mx) Ars Technica, citing reporting by El País, said the score distribution “warp[ed] beyond recognition” after the remote sitting. ### How was the exam supposed to be protected? UNAM’s 2026 admissions process moved the undergraduate entrance exam online for the first time, according to university and media reports. Gaceta UNAM said the first weekend of testing, on May 23 and May 24, drew 55,840 applicants, or 88% of those registered for that window. (mexiconewsdaily.com) Ars Technica and Mexico News Daily reported that the university used a lockdown browser and AI-powered webcam monitoring intended to stop applicants from opening other tabs or receiving outside help. Those controls did not prevent suspected cheating, and some reports said applicants may have used second devices to bypass the system. (timeshighereducation.com) ### Who has to retake the test, and what happens to their first score? About 58,000 applicants were ordered to sit the in-person control exam, according to reports published on August 5 and August 6. Yahoo, carrying the story, reported that the new in-person result will override the original online score entirely. (gaceta.unam.mx) Mexico News Daily reported that the university acted to restore confidence in the admissions process after suspicions spread among applicants and faculty. Latin America Reports said the announcement also triggered protests by some applicants in Mexico City, reflecting the stakes attached to admission at UNAM. (arstechnica.com) ### Why does this case matter beyond one university? UNAM is one of Latin America’s largest universities, and its admissions process is a national benchmark for competitive public higher education. The case has become a prominent example of a university reverting from remote testing to in-person assessment after suspected AI-assisted fraud in a high-stakes exam. (yahoo.com) Ars Technica reported that the university’s experiment with remote admissions testing ended with a mandatory do-over for tens of thousands of applicants. That outcome has put the focus on whether AI-based proctoring can police large-scale exams without creating new vulnerabilities. (mexiconewsdaily.com) ### When is the next step in the admissions process? UNAM’s admissions pages show the undergraduate process for the 2026-2027 cycle is already underway, with results and applicant materials posted through its DGAE system. Yahoo’s report said the semester starts on August 10, leaving little time between the control exam process and the beginning of classes. (timeshighereducation.com) The next concrete milestone is the in-person control exam for the affected applicants, whose admission will depend on those replacement scores, according to the reports and UNAM’s admissions portal. (dgae.unam.mx) (arstechnica.com)