How do universities manage research? Comparative analysis of the HEIs of Western Mexico

Abstract

This text presents a first approach to the way in which public state universities in Mexico structure, organize and manage the activities and processes around the research work carried out by their academic staff. The approach is carried out based on the information collected on the web pages of the institutions on four dimensions: a) the importance of research in the mission and in institutional policies; b) institutional structure responsible for Research; c) operation of the instances and programs to support research; and d) characteristics of link research-postgraduate. The first findings show that, despite the fact that research is discursively and symbolically recognized as one of the four substantive functions of higher education institutions, universities have a limited participation in this activity in the institutional sphere, due to the preeminence of the Teaching work