ITESO, Jesuit University of Guadalajara is based in Tlaquepaque, in the district of Jalisco, Mexico. The acronym stands for Instituto Technologico de Estudios Superiores del Oeste,
Founded in 1957 with courses focussed on business skills, it moved in 1962 to its current campus and grew steadily in terms of academic range and student numbers. Students can study across 35 disciplines, 13 of them in engineering. These include civil engineering and architecture, food engineering, education, international business, philosophy, psychology and social studies among others.
The university has a joint MBA programme with Regis University which is designed to prepare Latin American and US Latino executives/entrepreneurs to develop successful entrepreneurial and business skills for emerging markets such as China, Brazil, Russia, and India. This was the first programme of it's kind in Latin America.
The 48-hectare campus is described as "an exuberant eco-system" with more than 4,000 trees, many dating to a campaign in 1964 when students planted four or five trees each. Since the year 2000, the university has taken part in a number of reforestation projects, as well as campaigns for preventing and combating forest fires.
One of eight Jesuit universities in Mexico, it continues to uphold the accompanying values. Rector Luis Arriaga SJ listed spiritual identity as one of his four priorities, while ITESO’s motto translates as ‘"he spirit reinvigorates".
Rated an Institute of Academic Excellence by Mexico’s Ministry of Public Education, ITESO has risen steadily in national rankings published by El Universal newspaper.
An annual culture festival is held every autumn. More than 200 social programmes are carried out every year such as support for the Huichol Indian territory and culture, and a Law Centre serving citizens with "little or no resources" which handles about 2,000 cases each year.
