More Than 1,200 Dominican Students to Study Abroad on Scholarships

More Than 1,200 Dominican Students to Study Abroad on Scholarships

More than 1,200 young people have been awarded scholarships to study abroad at 88 different universities in 15 countries. The students will be studying at universities in the United States, Spain, Argentina, Mexico, France, Puerto Rico, Sweden, Holland, England, Brazil, Costa Rica, Chile and South Korea, among others.

The President said that between 2005 and 2009, nearly 5,000 students were awarded scholarships through the National Scholarship Program which is carried out under the auspices of the Ministry of Higher Education (SEECYT)…

At a symbolic send-off for the students, President Leonel Fernández said the government’s goal is to see 10,000 students to receive scholarships to study abroad by the year 2012.

The President said that between 2005 and 2009, nearly 5,000 students were awarded scholarships through the National Scholarship Program which is carried out under the auspices of the Ministry of Higher Education (SEECYT) under the direction of Ligia Amada Melo, according to the Presidential Office of Information, Press and Publicity.

In his speech at the Cariátides Hall of the National Palace, where Vice President Rafael Alburquerque was also present, President Fernández said SEECYT’s Ten Year Plan, being proposed for 2018, is to reach 50% of the university student population between the ages of 18 and 24 years of age.

Fernández added that when this goal is met the Dominican Republic will be at the same level as Brazil, the country with the most university students studying abroad.

“This is a great challenge for the Dominican Republic…in the next 10 years 50% of our population will hold college degrees.”

President Fernández recalled that in 1961, the number of college students between 18 and 24 in the country was 3,200, equivalent to 1% of the population of that age group.

He said that today there are 365,000 college students which represents 30% of that age group. “This is average in Latin America, about 30% among young adults between 18 and 24 years of age.”

He said that despite the most difficult year of the global financial crisis, there is still a high level of commitment on the part of the government to send students abroad to study.

He confirmed that another goal is to improve the quality of education in the country and to do that, the SEECYT is working with higher education experts to establish international standards for qualifying universities.

In this sense, he noted that they would be seeking to be part of a college ranking system in order to measure which universities have better programs in medicine, law, engineering and information technology so that students can make well-informed decisions about where to seek their degrees.

“SEECYT is making an effort to raise the standards for measuring the quality of universities by establishing a ranking system and establishing levels of prestige so that students enrolled in universities in the Dominican Republic are not viewed as attending schools of low quality. It is our goal also to assure the quality of higher education in the Dominican Republic,” he added.

At his, Ligia Amada Melo, stressed that this scholarship program supported by President Fernández has been successful in that it has given out grants to nearly 5,000 students including those 1,200 being honored today, the largest number in a year.

Others attending the activity included the Minister for Women’s Affairs,
Alejandrina Germán and representatives of the diplomatic corps registered in the Dominican Republic.

Throughout the ceremony, several of the students who have studied abroad under this program gave testimony to the benefits and to the knowledge they gained.

Music at the ceremony was provided by the string section of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo which played such themes as Éxito and Cañabrava.