NJM: Of course, there are a lot from Latin America. It has a lot to do with the fact that we don’t have many English programmes, so the people come mostly from Latin America. Mostly from countries that have borders with Colombia, like Ecuador, Venezuela…
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Natalia Jaramillo Manjarrés, MoE, Colombia
The PIE: And do a lot of Colombian students go to those countries as well?
NJM: Yes. We have a lot of mobility programmes, some through UNASUR [the Union of South American Nations], and also bilateral mobility programmes.
The PIE: What kind of programmes are they – funding programmes, exchanges…?
NJM: You can find everything. You can find funding programmes, but in the country we have a mixed system – we have three entities fostering mobility. There is Colciencias, which is a government entity working with science and innovation that gives student scholarships to study Masters or PhDs abroad in key areas which are very important for the country, and we have Colforturo which is a private, non profit entity that works with public and private funding, and just this year they are sending 1,400 students abroad. That one provides scholarships of up to US$25,000, and half of that is a scholarship if they return to Colombia within one year.
We also have ICETEX [The Colombian Institute for Education Credit and Technical Studies Abroad], which is a branch of the Minsitry of Education> that gives student loans to Colombian students to study abroad. ICETEX also provides funding for international professors to contribute to postgraduate programmes and promote higher education in Colombia – in the past 4 years it’s given funding to around 1,200 scholars who help with the internationalisation of higher education.
“We have a lot of people studying English abroad. That’s the first choice for most students”
The PIE: So there are a lot of government-backed support initiatives for study abroad at the moment.
NJM: Yes, we have a lot of students going abroad and a lot of them are getting help from the government. It can be student loans with very good interest loans, or it can be scholarships, or a mixture of the two.
We have a lot of people studying English abroad. That’s the first choice for most students.
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