SPANISH DOCTORAL STUDENTS UC-BOUND

The University of California further expanded its multi-faceted relationship with Spanish higher education with the recent signing of agreements between the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport and the graduate divisions of three UC campuses, Berkeley, Los Angeles and San Diego.

The signing took place at the UC Office of the President in Oakland on Feb. 22, hosted by C. Judson King, UC provost and senior vice president-academic affairs, along with John A. Marcum, associate provost for international academic activities, and universitywide director of the UC Education Abroad Program.

Officials from UC, Spain’s Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport (MECD), the Spanish Consulate in San Francisco, and representatives from Spanish higher education participated in the signing.

The new agreements will bring high quality Spanish students to select UC campuses for doctoral degrees. In some cases, recent Spanish Ph.D. recipients will be welcome to engage in post-doctoral research.

This relationship between the three UC campuses and the Spanish Ministry complements existing UC-wide collaborations with key Spanish universities, including numerous student exchange programs, faculty exchange opportunities and a funded faculty research program. The new agreements are the culmination of recent negotiations facilitated by the education adviser of the Spanish Embassy in Washington, D.C., Jesus Cruz, who earned his Ph.D. from UC San Diego.

“This program will bring top quality, funded graduate students to our campus,” said Richard Attiyeh, vice chancellor for research and dean of the graduate division, UC San Diego, who participated in the signing ceremony. “We look forward to working with the ministry to initiate this program in the coming year.”

The Spanish students will be subject to regular UC admissions requirements, but following a national competition will be pre-screened and pre-selected by the MECD in Spain. In addition to admission to a UC doctoral program with a tuition fellowship, successful candidates will receive a multi-year scholarship from the Spanish ministry to cover travel and living expenses.

The Spanish director general of universities, Ismael Crespo, traveled from Madrid to sign the agreements on behalf of the MECD. Crespo was a visiting scholar at the Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies at UC San Diego in 1992.

He affirmed his support for the new collaboration and expressed the wish for future programs between the ministry and UC.

UC currently sends some 500 students to study in Spain each year through its Education Abroad Program (EAP). Spain is the top destination of all of EAP’s 130 sites. EAP annually sends about 3,000 UC students abroad.