This article aims to identify the key variables of the institutional performance of the Public State Universities of Mexico (PSU) through structural analysis that reflects on the factors that influence their continuous improvement. Through the opinion of 26 experts in educational quality, it was possible to establish that factors such as organizational culture, self-assessment culture, adequate financing, and efficient knowledge management help to improve performance and therefore contribute to the achievement of goal 4 of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which seeks to guarantee quality and equal education. The research method is qualitative and uses two types of techniques: semi-structured interviews and structural analysis by means of a multiplier cross-impact matrix applied to a classification (MICMAC) as a tool to analyze the essential influential and dependent variables in educational institutions. Among the results, the importance of managing mechanisms that promote the creation, transfer, and dissemination of knowledge as key processes for organizational effectiveness stands out, also, the institutional budget and organizational culture are influential variables that improve the performance of PSU in Mexico.