Colombia, the country that played a key role in LASPAU's founding, today represents one of the organization's most successful collaborations to advance higher education in Latin America. In 1965, LASPAU began its mission with Colombia, just one year after the organization's founding as a collaboration between Harvard University, the Ford Foundation, and the Colombian student educational loan agency, the Instituto Colombiano de Crédito y Estudios Técnicos en el Exterior (ICETEX).
Over the past four decades, LASPAU has partnered with various entities, including the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation of the Colombian government (COLCIENCIAS), the Fulbright Commission in Colombia, and the Organization of American States (OAS), to administer scholarships for Colombians to pursue master's and doctoral degrees abroad. To date, this collaboration has resulted in LASPAU's administration of 44 scholarship programs, which have sponsored over 2,250 grants for academic studies abroad.
Increased awareness of the importance education has on a country's overall growth and success has led to the demand for programs that strengthen higher education and research. In a recent talk at the Microsoft Research Latin American Faculty Summit in Cartagena, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos emphasized the value of investing in higher education and added that 3,500 scholarships will be awarded for the Doctoral Training Program for studies completed both within Colombia and abroad by 2014.
In order to provide support to the government of Colombia to meet this educational objective, LASPAU is collaborating directly with both COLCIENCIAS and the Fulbright Colombia to administer the scholarships of 236 grantees in 2011-2012.
For over 15 years, LASPAU has administered COLCIENCIAS scholarship programs for Colombian educators and researchers to pursue graduate degrees in science and technology and related fields at recognized universities around the world. Over 1,200 grantees, the majority of which have pursued PhD programs, have completed studies in science and technology, public health, public policy, engineering, natural sciences and social sciences. The majority of the LASPAU-administered COLCIENCIAS grantees (53%) have pursued academic programs in the United States; however, grantees have also been placed in academic programs in a variety of countries including Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
The Fulbright Commission in Colombia has also been an active participant in furthering higher education in Colombia. LASPAU has worked closely with the Fulbright program in Latin America since 1975 and, to date, has administered the scholarships of 547 grantees from Colombia through a variety of Fulbright programs.
Colombia's ongoing commitment to higher education and LASPAU's many years of experience administering scholarships for Colombian grantees in leading academic programs ensure that this successful collaboration will continue to play an important role in achieving Colombia's vision of diversifying and enhancing higher education and developing human capital in the country.
