Prosecutors in Mexico City have detained two individuals accused of posing as prospective students to take the entrance examination for the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), one of the most prestigious and competitive public universities in Latin America.
According to the announcement from the Mexico City Attorney General’s Office (Fiscalía de la Ciudad de México), the suspects allegedly impersonated real applicants during the admissions test, a practice that undermines the fairness of a process that tens of thousands of students compete in each year for a limited number of spots.
UNAM’s entrance exam is notoriously difficult to pass, with acceptance rates for many programs falling into the single digits. That intense competition has, in the past, fueled a black market for cheating schemes, including cases in which people are paid to take the test on someone else’s behalf using falsified identification.
Officials did not immediately release further details on the specific charges the two detainees face, how they were identified, or how many applicants may have been involved in similar schemes. The case is expected to prompt renewed scrutiny of identity verification procedures during the exam process.
For the full story and additional details, readers can consult the original report from La Jornada.
Image: Yu Hwang-Wu Korean language lecturer, BY-SA 2.0 (via Openverse).