The Minister for Higher Education, Ligia Amada Melo, says that the delay in paying grants to Dominican students in France and Spain is due to the process of the contracts with the universities and not due to a lack of money.
A total of 101 out of the 4,000 overseas students are affected, studying at the Spanish universities of Murcia and Salamanca and at several French universities. They have now not been paid their scholarships for up to four months.
Melo said that the contracts with the universities were ready but that some needed to be rewritten to incorporate changes, one of which was for Salamanca and she had it there on her desk.
She admitted the existence of some problems at Salamanca with independent students who fell outside the contract and the Ministry had to pay for them, but the university was threatening to expel them, as this had not been paid. Unfortunately this had only been communicated to the students and not to the Ministry.
In the case of Murcia and the French universities, once again the contracts had not been finalized.
The PLD administrations have disbursed millions of dollars for Dominicans to study abroad.
www.listindiario.com/la-republica/2014/1/28/308581/Atribuye-el-retraso-en-desembolso-a-becarios-en-el-extranjero-a-problemas