President of Tec de Monterrey to Visit IIT, Strengthen Partnership

Chicago, IL — March 22, 2006 —

Dr. Alberto Bustani, President of Tec de Monterrey (Tec), will visit Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) on March 24. IIT and Tec have formed a strategic partnership to encourage institutional cooperation by developing joint academic programs, student and faculty exchange, and joint research. As part of this partnership, last year, IIT and Tec secured a USAID grant for almost $500,000 to help finance the environmental management education of Mexican citizens.

IIT President Lew Collens will host a lunch in Dr. Bustani's honor at Noon, at Hermann Hall, 3241 S. Federal Street. Carlos Manuel Sada, Consul General of Mexico in Chicago, will be among the attendees.

"IIT is making a concerted effort to increase the number of Latin American students," said Rafael Alvarado, Director of Latin American Affairs at IIT. As part of the overall strategy, we want to team up with the best schools, and Tec de Monterrey rises as a natural partner for IIT, given its outstanding quality and technological orientation."

Tec de Monterrey was founded in 1943 by a group of Mexican entrepreneurs and is the largest private university in Latin America. It has 95,000 students (3,500 from outside Mexico) at 33 campuses around the country.

IIT’s Stuart Graduate School of Business and Tec’s EGADE (Graduate School of Business and Leadership) have signed dual degree agreements that allow Mexican and American students to take a portion of their coursework in Mexico and complete it in Chicago, receiving from both institutions one of the following graduate degrees: MBA, MS Finance, MS Financial Markets or MS Marketing Communications.

EGADE is considered the best business school in Latin America and one of the best in the world. It is recognized as the top business school in Latin America by America Economia (Chile), among the top 100 business schools of the world by the Financial Times (UK) (89th in 2005), in the top 30 best business schools by The Wall Street Journal (USA), Top 20 non-USA Business Schools by Business Week (USA) and among the top 50 MBA schools in the world by Handelsblatt (Germany). In 2002 EGADE was recognized among the top 15% of schools in the world for showing significant activities in social and environmental stewardship, according to a study conducted by The World Resources Institute and The Aspen Institute Initiative for Social Innovation through Business. In 2001, the World Resources Institute and Aspen Institute for Social Innovation in Business ranked IIT’s MS Environmental Management Program in the top six in the United States and among the top 15 in the world.

Currently, IIT and Tec de Monterrey are finalizing new academic agreements in the areas of Engineering and Food Safety.

Stuart Graduate School of Business—a college of Illinois Institute of Technology—provides experienced working professionals and career-entry students from all countries with a range of intellectually challenging graduate-level business education programs. These programs are taught from a practical perspective, with an emphasis on analytic/quantitative skills and the relationship between business and technology. The School also emphasizes applied research in business and management.

Founded in 1890, IIT is a Ph.D.-granting technological university that awards degrees in the sciences, mathematics, and engineering, as well as architecture, psychology, design, business, and law. IIT’s interprofessional, technology-focused curriculum prepares the university’s 6,200 students for leadership roles in an increasingly complex and culturally diverse global workplace.