Mexico

Mexican University Orders 58K to Retake Exam After Mass Cheating Allegations

Did UNAM make the right call or did it punish honest students for its own failures?

AUG 5·Updated AUG 8

Mexican University Orders 58K to Retake Exam After Mass Cheating Allegations

Story

Above: Applicants of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) protesting in the south of Mexico City, Mexico on Aug. 3. Image credit: Jose Luis Torales/NurPhoto/Getty Images

The Facts

Mexico's National Autonomous University (UNAM) on Sunday ordered around 58,000 applicants to retake its undergraduate entrance exam in person after a remote online version produced abnormally high scores, prompting suspicions of widespread cheating.
Mezha
The Guardian
Between 2021 and 2025, just 3.5% of UNAM applicants scored 100 or more on the 120-question exam. This year that figure rose to 16.3%, while the share scoring 110 or more jumped sixfold, from 0.9% to 5.5%.
Heise Online
The New York Times
The exam, administered from late May through early June, used a lockdown browser from Respondus and an AI-powered webcam proctoring system from Territorium, a Texas-based firm contracted for roughly 36 million pesos ($2 million).
Cybernews
Colombia One
AI expert Raul Rojas said that statistical modeling suggested nearly half of the approximately 160,000 participants may have cheated. Reports indicated that exam questions were leaked and sold online, and cheating tips circulated before the test went live.
Times Higher Education
Mexico Daily News
The New York Times
UNAM rector Leonardo Lomeli announced the academic year for new students would be delayed from Aug. 10 to Aug. 31 to allow time to organize the in-person retake. He apologized to fairly accepted applicants who must resit the exam despite having done nothing wrong.
Town & Country
Latin America Reports
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said the Attorney General's office could investigate if crimes were committed, while hundreds of applicants protested in Mexico City on Monday, blocking major roads to oppose having to retake the exam.
Ars Technica
CNN
The Guardian

Sources Split

LEFT

CENTER

RIGHT

ESTAB
CRIT

CENTER

PRO
ESTAB

The Spin

Narrative A

The statistics don't lie: students scoring above 100 jumped from 3% to 16% in a single year. Software was sold openly on TikTok that would sit the exam for you. A university that let those results stand would be handing places in medicine and law to people who bought their way in. Lomelí's decision to self-correct is exactly what accountability looks like.

CNN

Mexico Daily News

Narrative B

UNAM chose to move online for the first time in its history, contracted a company whose AI monitoring was trivially defeated, then forced 58,000 students — including those who scored legitimately — to resit in person with no guarantee their original results would be honored. Honest students are paying the price for an institutional gamble that failed spectacularly.

Ars Technica

Colombia One