UP was founded in 1967 as a business school. A group of wealthy businessmen and academics gave life to the Panamerican Institute for Executive Business Management, later they promoted the creation of a university. The Panamerican Institute of Humanities, founded in 1968, merged with the IPADE and created the Panamerican University. It was all done under the spiritual direction of Opus Dei, a personal prelature of the Catholic Church. In 1978, the IPH was given University rank and took the name Panamerican University, even though the IPADE and IPH conceived from their origins the universal and unitarian knowledge. The new university began with only two programs, Pedagogy and Administration. During the 1970s new programs were added, including Law and Philosophy, Economics and Business Administration, and Industrial Engineering. Further new programs were added in the 1980s and 1990s, including Electromechanic Engineering, Accountancy, Informatics, Marketing, International Business, Finance, and Medicine.
Ubi spiritus, libertas is the university's motto, synthesizing the educational philosophy. Love of freedom in a space where the human spirit is cultivated--love of authentic freedom. The University's arms is formed by two elements: The red square and the blue band on the golden left side, which represent the coat of arms used by Christopher Columbus when he landed in the Americas; they symbolize Pan-Americanism. On the right side, on top of a golden bottom, there's an Oak, symbol of strength. Its roots are the diverse sources of integral development; the four ramifications symbolize the Cardinal Virtues: Prudence, Justice, Fortitude and Temperance; the leaves and acorns represent the rest of the virtues, which derive of the fundamental four.
Schools and Faculties
Currently, the university has 17 undergraduate academic programs, depending on 5 Schools and 3 Faculties. This includes Licenciaturas and Ingenierías.
School of Institutions Administration
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School of Communication
Faculty of Law
Faculty of Philosophy
Faculty of Pedagogy
Open University
The University is also in charge of the Preparatoria Universidad Panamericana, a high school with the same educational principles. It has two distinct campuses one for boys and another for girls, called Yaocalli.
Mexican journalist Carmen Aristegui published a series of reports on alleged plagiarism found in the thesis entitled "The Mexican presidentialism and Alvaro Obregon" from the current President of Mexico Enrique Peña Nieto, to obtain a degree in law at Panamerican University. The university informed their community that a group of "distinguished members" would make an analysis of this thesis and issued an institutional statement dated August 28 informing that the graduating procedure of Enrique Peña Nieto complied with the requirements back in the year 1991 and the thesis of his own presents both original ideas and ideas from other authors treated in five different ways: • Textual fragment reproduction of previously published works according to academic standards. • Textual fragment reproduction without quotes or footer section of the literature. • Support Reproductions in which there is no quoted footnote reference but in the reference section. • Textual reproduction in which credit is given to the author of ambiguous or imprecise manner. • Cases in which credit is given to the original author, but not the source from which the quotation was taken. In the same statement the Law Faculty reports that proceeded to search rules that allow a proper response to a discovery of this nature and concluded that: 1) This is an unprecedented case in which there are no provisions in the applicable regulatory bodies titration procedure, a technical consultation to the National Autonomous University of Mexico was asked to confirm in writing this criterion. 2) The General Regulations from that institution does not apply to former students. 3) It is a consummated act on which it is impossible to proceed in any way.
