Universities from Colombia and Castile and Leon propose a joint PhD programme

Universities from Colombia and Castile and Leon propose a joint PhD programme

President of the Colombian Association of Rectors (ASCUN) and current Rector of the University of El Valle, Ivan Ramos, met with the Minister of Education.

Following the recent visit of the regional Minister of Education Juan Jose Mateos to Colombia, the President of the Colombian Association of Rectors (ASCUN) – counterpart to the President of the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE) in Spain – and current Rector of the University of El Valle, Ivan Ramos, visited Castile and Leon to meet with the rectors of the region’s public universities and the Minister of Education.

Meeting first with the rectors of the public universities in Castile and Leon, Ramos acknowledged the characteristics of the universities and their current projects, as well as an interest in creating closer ties between the academic institutions of Colombia and the Community.

During a second meeting presided by the regional Minister of Education, the policies of internationalising the Colombian universities to facilitate the exchange of graduate students and launching joint programmes with the universities of Colombia were discussed.

On this point, Mateos went into greater detail about the possibility of creating a joint PhD programme with the universities of Colombia, which translates into the possibility of offering Colombian students the opportunity to read and defend their theses at the home university and in one of the public universities of Castile and Leon. To do so, the Minister of Education pointed out the possibility of launching a grant programme, in collaboration with the Ibero-American University Association for Post-graduate Studies, which could cover the costs of lodging for one or two weeks, for doctoral students in Castile and Leon, as well as travel costs and additional expenses for the tutor at the student’s home university. The grant programme would require the collaboration of Banco Santander with the Ministry of Education through the Foundation for University and Higher Learning in Castile and Leon (Fuescyl).

The initiative would offer ‘significant benefits’ in the words of Mateos, since ‘the student obtains two university titles and the director for the thesis-professor-researcher would be in contact with colleagues at the universities of Castile and Leon, resulting in an exchange of experience and knowledge among professors-researchers and students from both universities’. Moreover, Castile and Leon would have Doctorate Schools whose activities would benefit the universities.

Both projects, Reading and defending a thesis and international mobility, will be developed with the direct collaboration of the Ibero-American Association of Postgraduate Studies, according to information on the regional Administration gathered by DiCYT.

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