On Thursday 15 May, at the headquarters of the Universidad.es Foundation in Madrid the Selection Committee met to award a new set of grants for undergraduate students from Equatorial Guinea. The grants are designed to contribute to the strenghtening of the academic institutions of this African country.

This grants program is one of the activities laid out in the Cooperation Agreement to promote university cooperation with Equatorial Guinea, signed last May by the Universidad.es Foundation, the Spanish Agency of International Cooperation (AECID) and the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE).

The program was also supported by the Spanish Distance Learning University (UNED). Aided by the Spanish Embassy in Malabo, the UNED's centres in Equatorial Guinea participated in the preselection, training and evaluation of the applicants.

The Selection Committee comprised a representative of each of the three institutions involved, in addition to the Spanish Ambassador in Malabo and a representative of the Ministry of Education of Equatorial Guinea. The Universidad.es Foundation is responsible for the organization of the grants program, the AECID finances its implementation, and the CRUE has undertaken to ask the Spanish universities to exempt students from Equatorial Guinea from paying the registration fee. In addition to registration, the grants also cover accommodation, maintenance and health care in Spain.

After evaluating the applications, the Selection Committee has awarded 100 grants: 55 to students from the continental region, and 45 from the insular region. Most applications were for studies in Engineering and Architecture (39%) and Social and Legal Sciences (31%). The Guinean students will join their Spanish universities in September and, if their results for the first year are satisfactory, their grant may be renewed for the following academic year.

The file can be checked here.

Universidad.es is a public sector foundation that aims to promote the Spanish university system throughout the world. The foundation was set up by the Spanish government with the support of Spanish universities, the regional governments and other institutions. Universidad.es was formally constituted on 23 December 2008.