Universities Must Allow Audits, High Court Rules

Mexico’s Supreme Court has limited the autonomy that public universities here enjoy by law, ruling that they must submit to audits of how they use government funds.

A university claimed that its autonomy--the legal status by which police, government officials and troops need special permission to enter campuses--also exempted it from Congress’ attempts to investigate the funds.

But a five-member court panel ruled unanimously that “autonomy can never be interpreted as the creation of fiefdoms ... beyond the fundamental rules of the state.”