Banco Santander has extended its Santander Erasmus Scholarship program to three new countries (Portugal, Germany and Poland), with which it aims to encourage any deserving student to study abroad, regardless of their income level
“The equal opportunities it is a basic principle of our society that we must all help to guarantee”. The phrase is from Juan Romo, rector of the Carlos III University of Madrid and president of the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE).
He said it last Wednesday during the Board of Directors of Universia Spain, the network of universities promoted by Banco Santander and which unites all the national higher education centers (and a good part of those in Latin America).
The act was presided over by Romo himself, the General Secretary of Universities, José Manuel Pingarrón; and the president of the financial entity, Ana Botn, who ratified the agreement to ratify the Santander Erasmus Scholarship program and its extension to three new countries: Germany, Poland and Portugal.
Ace, Santander will allocate two million euros to grant scholarships for 3,500 students (1,800 in Spain) from 125 different universities to complement the official endowment of the Erasmus scholarship. Each of them will receive a grant of 500 or 1,000 euros that will allow them to face, with more guarantees, the costs of their stay at a foreign university.
And that is where Juan Romo’s phrase makes sense. Because, thanks to this complement, many students from families with a low income level but high merits will be able to consider opt for the scholarship on equal terms with families with more resources.
For this reason, among the objectives set by the Santander Universities program, those of “recognize the academic excellence of Erasmus+ scholarship holders and promote educational inclusion and equal opportunities for those in unfavorable economic conditions.”
Because the truth is that numerous studies and reports show that Carrying out a training stay abroad decisively improves the employability of graduates, since it allows them to incorporate skills highly valued by the labor market. For example, autonomy, multiculturalism, knowing how to manage a budget, responsibility…
University and company
And that connection between the skills required by the company and those provided by the university experience was another of the topics discussed at the event, which also served for the Universia directors to exchange impressions and ideas on how to promote and improve higher education.
Thus, Botn stressed that “addressing the existing gap between knowledge and the skills that companies demand to reduce the unemployment rate among young people” should be one of the main challenges. For the University, but also for society in general, including companies, public administrations and other social agents.
is that “we all have to help” that Romo manifested and in which Pingarrón also abounded. “Today, if there is no connection with other companies and other institutions outside of Spain, the learning and innovation process is impossible,” he stressed.
And it is no coincidence that they both said it in the presence of Ana Botn, whose bank has allocated 8.6 million euros only to the last five editions of its Santander Erasmus Scholarships and 2,100 million euros since Santander Universities was created more than 25 years ago.
Another example of this commitment will be the organization in Valencia, in May, of the V International Meeting of Rectors Universia 2023, which will follow those held in Seville (2005), Guadalajara (Mexico, 2010), Rio de Janeiro (2014) and Salamanca. (2018). In the latter, for example, 600 rectors from 26 different countries met to turn the city of Salamanca into the capital of higher education. One more example that the union, also in university matters, makes strength.