UDLAP has maintained its leadership as a private university in the ranking conducted by the Mexican newspaper EL Universal. The ranking, which uses the opinions of academic peers and employers, ranked UDLAP in the first places as the best private university in:
Most of the academic programs ranked by the newspaper Reforma also place within the first three slots. America Economia, the Latin American magazine headquartered in Chile, ranked UDLAP the second best private university in Mexico. In 2013 UDLAP began participating in the institutional rating process conducted by QS Stars. The assessment system has a range of performance indicators based on a criterion classification method. As a result, in 2017 UDLAP earned five stars; the only single-campus university in Latin America with this distinction.