Sponsor: North and South American
institutions; U.S.
Agency for International Development (USAID)
Countries: Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil,
Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala,
Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela
Program focus: Faculty development
Timeframe: 1965–1975
Description: A collaboration between USAID,
U.S. universities, and Latin American universities, this program was LASPAU’s
first effort devoted exclusively to faculty development. 1,600 young people
from across Latin America obtained U.S. graduate degrees in preparation for
careers in academia and returned home to contribute to the teaching and research
missions of their home institutions.
More Information
The LASPAU Faculty Development
Program grew out of an early effort to provide opportunities for
undergraduate studies to outstanding Latin American youths of
limited economic means. Over the initial three years of the Latin
American Scholarship Program of American Universities (LASPAU),
the program was gradually modified to accommodate transfer students,
to include study through the master’s degree, and to require
grantees to return to teach in the schools and universities of
their home countries. When LASPAU was incorporated as a nonprofit
organization in 1966, it took the name of the early program. The
grantees were called LASPAU scholars, referring to the program
itself rather than to the organization that now bore the same
name.
By 1968, the program had evolved to a true collaboration of funding
partners. Latin American universities nominated outstanding undergraduate
students in academic disciplines of the university’s own
choosing and committed to providing full-time faculty positions
to the grantees upon their return. U.S. universities welcomed
the grantees to their campuses, providing scholarships for tuition
and participating as dues-paying members of LASPAU. USAID funded
the students’ maintenance, books, and incidental personal
expenses, as well as most of the administrative costs of the program.
The grantees themselves obtained loans from partner institutions
in their own countries to finance their English language training
and international transportation costs. These institutions, which
also helped to publicize the program and administer qualifying
exams, included the Instituto Colombiano de Especialización
Técnica en el Exterior (ICETEX), the Instituto Peruano
de Fomento Educativo (IPFE), the Fundación de Crédito
Educativo in the Dominican Republic, and the newly established
Central de Becas in Mexico.
An interesting facet of this program is that the candidates were
undergraduate students at the time of nomination by their universities—the
faculty of the future rather than of the present. This makes the
commitment of the Latin American universities to provide faculty
positions for the grantees upon their return all the more striking.
Nominees were required to be in the top quarter of their class,
study in a field that the nominating university wished to strengthen,
and demonstrate clear evidence of significant financial need.
In 1969, LASPAU reorganized its staff, appointing four assistant
directors who each had responsibility for a specific geographical
area in Latin America. These regional directors developed productive
professional relationships with the rectors, vice-rectors, and
deans of the universities in the countries that they covered,
enabling them to assist with institutional efforts to develop
staffing plans and determine how LASPAU could be most useful in
helping to meet those plans.
By 1970, the LASPAU candidate pool had expanded to include young
instructors who were just beginning their teaching careers, in
keeping with the organization’s focus on faculty development
as a component of university development. LASPAU also determined
that all current and future grantees should complete master’s
degrees, even though many students who originally entered to obtain
an undergraduate degree would require six years to achieve the
full complement of studies. This decision was based on the fact
that grantees who left the program with only an undergraduate
degree often found it difficult to complete successfully for faculty
positions because they were not sufficiently grounded in their
fields of specialization.
As LASPAU focused more clearly on faculty development, greater
consideration was given in the selection process to the candidate’s
commitment to a university teaching career, to the university’s
commitment to the candidate as a future faculty member, and to
the match between the candidate’s qualifications and the
university’s development priorities. The financial need
of the candidate remained an important factor. As university teaching
experience became a selection criterion, the proposed degree program
shifted markedly. Of the 149 grantees who began their programs
in 1966, 138 (93%) were undergraduates. In 1974, all but 9 (5%)
of the 238 new grantees were graduate students.
By 1974, LASPAU had awarded scholarships to a total of 1,600
individuals sponsored by 161 universities in 18 Latin American
countries. These scholars studied at 272 institutions throughout
the United States. The most common fields of study were engineering
and the natural sciences. That same year, USAID notified LASPAU
that it intended to gradually withdraw support from the LASPAU
Program, a result of reduction in USAID’s own budget for
Latin American assistance and a narrowing of its priorities to
social programs involving the poorest of the poor.
By mid-1975, LASPAU had successfully negotiated contracts with
the Fulbright Program and with Banco de México, beginning
a new stage in the organization’s development.
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