Western Institute of Technology and Higher Education (in Spanish: Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente, ITESO, also Universidad Jesuita de Guadalajara) — distinct from the state University of Guadalajara — is a Jesuit university in the Western Mexican state of Jalisco, located in the municipality of Tlaquepaque in the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area. ITESO is the only university in Jalisco with the Registration as an Institution of Academic Excellence, awarded by Mexico’s Ministry of Public Education. It is the first private university of the central-western region of Mexico to offer graduate programs of excellence recognized by the National Council of Science and Technology (Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología, CONACYT) and the Mexican Society for the Public Communication of Science and Technology (SOMEDICYT). Among private universities in the country, ITESO has the greatest number of professors in the National System of Researchers (SNI), the greatest number of books published, as well as an outstanding library.