The Universidad Pontificia de México (Pontifical University of Mexico) is a private institution of higher education originally established Charles I, King of Spain in 1551, re-established by the Holy See in 1982, and sponsored by the Roman Catholic Episcopate in Mexico. It is one of the two modern Mexican universities claiming to be successors of the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico (Real y Pontificia Universidad de México), one of the first universities founded in North America. The university is today the only existing pontifical university in Mexico.