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The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) announced this Friday that it will administer an in-person control exam to applicants selected for undergraduate admission for the 2026-2027 school year, after detecting statistical anomalies and signs of irregularities due to the alleged use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in its first admission process conducted entirely online.
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"This is not a new exam; it is a control exam precisely to ensure that those accepted truly put in the effort and did not have assistance that gave them an advantage over the other applicants," stated UNAM Rector Leonardo Lomelí.
¿QUÉ ASPIRANTES REPETIRÁN EL EXAMEN DE ADMINISIÓN PERO PRESENCIAL?
The in-person control exam will be for both applicants who had already been accepted for undergraduate admission in 2026 and those who were left out, but reached scores equal to or higher than the historical minimums for admission recorded for the same major, campus, and modality between 2021 and 2026.
The executive explained that the measure seeks to guarantee the fairness of the process after a technical commission concluded that the results of the contest showed atypical changes compared to previous years.
The decision comes a week after the institution temporarily suspended enrollments and created a commission made up of specialists to review the selection process, following reports of alleged use of artificial intelligence, identity theft, and external assistance during the test.
When announcing the decision, Lomelí assured that the measure seeks to preserve equity in access to higher education.
"It was for this reason that, having received this recommendation, I consider it very appropriate to resort to a control exam to verify results due to suspected irregularities," he affirmed.
Lomelí offered an apology to those who passed the process legitimately and will have to take an evaluation again.
"I offer an apology to the applicants who, having been accepted fairly, will be summoned to take the control exam, but it is necessary to provide certainty and guarantee equity in access," he expressed.
The president of the Technical Commission for the Review of the 2026 Undergraduate Admission Process, Eduardo Bárzana García, explained that 158,727 applicants participated in the online exam and that the supervision system, based on artificial intelligence and human verification, allowed for the detection of prohibited conduct, such as the use of cell phones, third-party support, and possible cases of identity theft.
According to the academic, about 2% of the tests were canceled due to these irregularities, while statistical analysis revealed an unusual increase in the highest scores.
According to the commission, they were able to detect that between 2021 and 2025, approximately 3.5% of applicants obtained 100 or more correct answers, while in 2026 that proportion increased to 16.3%.
Likewise, those who achieved 110 or more correct answers went from about 0.9% to 5.5%, an increase of nearly six times.
Given these results, the commission recommended summoning both those who had been accepted and applicants who obtained a score equal to or higher than the minimum required for admission to the same major, campus, and modality between 2021 and 2026 to the control exam.
The exam will be held in person and the available spots will be assigned based on the results obtained in that evaluation.
The commission stressed that the summons "does not constitute an imputation of irregular conduct," but rather a mechanism to guarantee the objectivity, fairness, and integrity of the admission process, while investigations continue to clarify the failures detected and determine responsibilities.
The UNAM rector indicated that the steps to be followed to take the exam will be detailed in the coming hours and assured that the university "will provide conditions of certainty and equity" so that applicants can complete the admission process to the institution under the "best conditions."
[Publicidad]