European University Scholarships for Indigenous Students in Latin America

Indigenous students at UNIA

The Preciosa Project of the European Commission offers a unique opportunity to Latin American indigenous students: 35 scholarships to study Bachelor’s or Master’s degrees in European Universities in the fields of Information Science, Engineering, Law, Agriculture, Urban Planning, Business Administration, and Geology, among others.

Indigenous students from Paraguay, Panama, Peru, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Ecuador, among others, are eligible for these scholarships which  include airfare and some living expenses for the students.

The European Commission is an administrative wing of the European Union and will be responsible for creating joint diploma programs between Latin America and Europe.

Elisa Zambon, Preciosa Project Manager and Director of International relations at the University of Padua, Italy, explains that indigenous students who win the scholarships will most probably be sent to Spanish speaking European university programs because they will be able to acclimatize better in linguistically similar environs.

The Preciosa Project is part of the higher education network Erasmus Mundi Consortia. Some of the European universities participating in the Preciosa Project include: the University of Coimbra in Portugal, the University of Granada and the University of Salamanca in Spain; the University of Montpellier in France, the University of Padua and the University of Bologna in Italy; Uppsala University in Sweden; and the Karl Franz University in Austria.

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Written by Mantra Roy