Mexico, Colombia to exchange becas students

Published 18/08/2015

Two leading private universities in Latin America have announced an exchange initiative for low-income students who qualify for their merit-based scholarship (becas) programmes.

Leaders of the Tecnológico de Monterrey (TEC) in Mexico and the Universidad de los Andes (UNIANDES) in Colombia this month said the exchange is the beginning of a community of future leaders in the region.

From next year, 25 students from UNIANDES’s Quiero Estudiar and TEC’s Líderes del Mañana scholarship programmes will participate in the exchange.

Salvador Alva, President of TEC, announced the partnership at the opening of the second annual Líderes del Mañana welcome event this month.

“With a global vision, today we’re eliminating physical borders and launching the community of Latin American leaders, TEC-UNIANDES.”

“We want you to go and be nourished by what they’ve done to clean up social inequality, disobedience and insecurity”

“We’re looking for the 25 students who have the ability to gain a lot from this type of exchange. In Colombia they have done many things to transform society and we want you to go and be nourished by what they’ve done to clean up social inequality, disobedience and insecurity,”  TEC rector David Noel Ramírez told students.

UNIANDES rector Pablo Navas echoed his optimism, highlighting the students’ ability to make changes in the region.

“We sleep sounder because of the example you’ve given until now showing that you’re clearly capable and the future of our countries will be much better,” he said.

The Líderes del Mañana programme, established last year, was inspired by UNIANDES’s programme, Quiero Estudiar, which launched in 2009.

UNIANDES’ Quiero Estudiar programme has supported almost 400 students through to graduation since its inception.

The programme covers complete tuition costs for students from low-income backgrounds with the requirement that they return the money once they have stable employments in order to sustain the programe and extend the opportunity to future students.

Similarly, Líderes del Mañana targets students with little to no economic resources to pay for higher education. The programme, funded mostly by TEC, covers 100% of course fees and living costs for up to 200 students a year without any responsibility of repayment.

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