[14][page needed] In its early years the Institute operated at Abasolo 858 Oriente in a large, two-story house located a block and a half away from Zaragoza Square, behind the city's Metropolitan Cathedral.

For that reason, a master plan was commissioned to Enrique de la Mora and on February 3, 1947, what would later be known as its Monterrey Campus was inaugurated by Mexican President Miguel Alemán Valdés.

[1][page needed] Because the operations of the local companies were highly reliant on U.S. markets, investments, and technology; internationalization became one of its earliest priorities.

At the end the project was renamed Centro de Enseñanza Técnica y Superior (CETYS) and grew into a fully independent institution.

[citation needed] In 1987, when the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools demanded faculty members with master's degrees to lecture 100% of its undergraduate courses,[18] the Institute invested considerably in both distance learning and computer network technologies and training, effectively becoming, on February 1, 1989, the first university ever connected to the Internet in both Latin America[9] and the Spanish-speaking world.

Most of them deliver both high school and undergraduate education, some offer postgraduate programs and only eight (Cumbres, Eugenio Garza Sada, Eugenio Garza Lagüera, Santa Catarina, Metepec, Santa Anita, Esmeralda and Valle Alto) deliver high school courses exclusively.

[17][page needed] Such organizations (effectively serving as boards of trustees) are responsible for electing the rectors or directors of a particular campus.

Current academic calendar for both high school and undergraduate students is composed of two semesters running from August to December and from January to May (each lasting 16 weeks) and an optional summer session from June to July, where at most two courses can be taken in an intensive basis.

[36] Studies at the institute are officially accredited by the Secretariat of Public Education of Mexico (Secretaría de Educación Pública, SEP) and by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS)[37] of the United States.

[3] The institute is the only Latin American institution at the European Consortium of Innovative Universities (ECIU) —an organization committed to innovations in both teaching and learning[41]— and at Universitas 21; an international network of research-intensive universities established as an "international reference point and resource for strategic thinking on issues of global significance.

[46] The institute has at least thirty-three libraries in twenty-five Mexican cities holding over 2.4 million books, publications, and 46 types of electronic databases with at least 51,000 specialized magazines and academic journals and over 9000 e-books.

[47] Its Cervantean Library, named after Miguel de Cervantes and located in the current rectorate, holds one of the largest collections of Don Quixote incunabula, an original edition of L'Encyclopédie, and the Mario Pani Archives, and other bibliographical treasures while the main library of the Monterrey Campus holds the personal collections of archaeologist Ignacio Bernal.

[69] The School of Medicine was founded to satisfy the country's need for high quality medical training and innovation in biomedical research.

[75] Notwithstanding some reputable achievements, throughout most of the 20th century its research activities —normally financed independently or under private sponsorship— were rather scarce in comparison to public universities such as the National Autonomous University of Mexico or the National Polytechnic Institute, whose budgets make up to 30% of the federal spending in higher education and, as such, are heavily financed by the government through the federal budget.

[83] Additionally, the Institute developed a researcher-friendly patent scheme that aims to attract talented researchers and reduce the national brain drain.

[3] However, with tuition fees exceeding MXN $200,000 per academic year[86] (among the highest in Latin America according to Forbes magazine)[87] most of its student community comes from upper and upper-middle class and the overall atmosphere is arguably politically and socially conservative.

[96] The Institute asked to return to the organization, but the ONEFA Board decided that the request should be formally presented in its next ordinary meeting, after the 2009 season,[97] which its four teams ended up playing between themselves in a Tech-only championship.

[99] Although there are local adaptations, since 1945 the system-wide sports mascot is the ram (borrego salvaje), traditionally embodied in a male bighorn sheep.

A somewhat popular urban legend states that the mascot was chosen by the American football team on its way to a match, after spotting a male sheep on the road.

Over a dozen Mexican governors and cabinet members have attended classes at the institute, including former Secretary of Commerce and North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) negotiator Herminio Blanco.