150 excellent students with limited economic resources have gained access to university with the "la Caixa" Foundation's undergraduate scholarships
The "la Caixa" Foundation has awarded 50 new bachelor's degree scholarships to excellent students with limited economic resources for the 2023 call for applications. This is the third promotion of the Scholarship programme, created by the entity in 2021 with the aim of promoting equal opportunities in access to university education. In its first three years, the programme has made it possible for 150 young people to access university thanks to these grants.
The undergraduate scholarship offers a monthly financial endowment of 600 euros that facilitates full and full-time dedication to their studies. In addition, the scholarship holders receive initial aid to purchase computer equipment and material, complementary aid for international stays, language courses and a programme of accompaniment and training in transversal skills.
The third promotion begins its new phase
After receiving 480 applications, the third edition of the call for applications has awarded 50 undergraduate scholarships to students who will begin their studies in September.
The 50 scholarship holders selected come from 24 Spanish provinces: Barcelona (6), Madrid (4), Malaga (4), Murcia (4), Alicante (3), Santa Cruz de Tenerife (3), Valencia (3), Albacete (2), Badajoz (2), Baleares (2), Cadiz (2), Las Palmas (2), Toledo (2), Asturias (1), Ávila (1), Girona (1), Granada (1), Jaén (1), La Rioja (1), León (1), Lugo (1), Sevilla (1), Teruel (1) and Valladolid (1).
In this third edition of the call, corresponding to 2023, the most sought-after degrees are Law (7), Medicine (5), Business Administration and Management (5) and Aerospace Engineering (5), and the centres that will receive the most scholarship holders are the University of Barcelona (4), the Complutense University of Madrid (4), the University of Granada (4) and the University of Malaga (4).
"We know that many talented and dedicated young people are forced to abandon their desire to go to university for financial reasons. With these scholarships, we want to help students of academic excellence who have grown up in needy environments, and who have cultivated effort, perseverance, knowledge and sensitivity, to go as far as they want to go", says the Chairman of the "la Caixa" Foundation, Isidro Fainé.
The scholarship holders from the first edition meet in Barcelona
During the second week of July, the first meeting of degree scholarship holders took place in Barcelona, attended by those from the first edition (2021). For four days, they had the opportunity to share ideas, strengthen ties and acquire new knowledge through training visits and sessions with the programme's counsellors.
"This scholarship has changed my life radically. It is allowing me to do the studies I wanted to do at the university I wanted. It is a recognition of the effort I made in high school and has made me feel that my talent has no limits", said Joaquín Márquez, one of the scholarship holders present at the meeting. "This scholarship is an opportunity for all of us who are willing to take on the world and make it a better place," adds this young man, born in Argentina and raised in Spain, who is studying physics at the Complutense University of Madrid.
The meeting in Barcelona ended with a ceremony in the CosmoCaixa Science Museum to recognise the scholarship holders from the first call for applications.
Four decades of support for academic and research excellence
The "la Caixa" Foundation Scholarship programme was set up in 1982 with the aim of encouraging international mobility and promoting training of excellence and research at the best universities and research centres in the world, through its programme of postgraduate scholarships abroad. Later, with the doctoral and post-doctoral programmes in Spain and Portugal, the aim was to attract and retain the best Spanish and international research talent, and to promote cutting-edge research in the Iberian Peninsula. During these more than 40 years, almost 6,000 students and researchers have obtained one of these grants.
From 2021, with the Undergraduate Scholarships programme, the "la Caixa" Foundation covers all stages of university and post-university education, while at the same time taking a new turn and combining for the first time the academic excellence that so characterises these grants with social equity.
