Building links with Colombian scholarship agency

COLFUTURO is a public/private partnership agency tasked with assisting the brightest young Colombians to pursue postgraduate studies overseas.

Each university showcased its distinctive strengths during the visit and have all expressed keen interest in working with COLFUTURO to receive top Colombian students.

Jerónimo was impressed with the quality of our universities, and in particular, the attractiveness of New Zealand’s PhD programmes, which he identified as holding great potential for growth for New Zealand in the Colombian market.

During the trip, Jerónimo stressed the importance of people-to-people connections in developing links with COLFUTURO – something he regarded as particular success of the visit.

He also stressed that COLFUTURO is different from most scholarship programmes in that:

• it carefully matches quality students with quality faculties

• it supports study in all subject areas

• an unlimited number of students can apply to any one institution

Although COLFUTURO does not directly influence where students study, they do have an Academic Advisory Centre where students can research potential study destinations. It is here that institutions can provide targeted information to potential COLFUTURO students.

COLFUTURO also has a service for self-funded students to look at English study abroad options.  Agreements with English language centres within a number of New Zealand universities are under discussion. 

COLFUTURO operates a talent recruitment programme whereby it selects high-achieving students from top Colombian universities and supports them to become COLFUTURO scholarship recipients. It also helps them access funding from other sources. ENZ will talk with these students while attending the Latin American and Caribbean Higher Education Conference in Barranquilla, Colombia in mid-November this year.

If you have queries or would like further information, contact Cecily Lin at Education New Zealand Cecily.Lin@educationnz.govt.nz