With 182 scholarships awarded in this call, the UC thus awards 20.2% of the 900 scholarships awarded by the National Agency for Research and Development, ANID, for students who carry out their doctoral studies in national higher education institutions this 2023 .
UC Communications.- A total of 182 national doctoral scholarships were awarded to UC students this academic year 2023, out of a total of 900 awarded by the National Agency for Research and Development, ANID. “This achievement makes us proud and is of great importance for our institution, as it reflects the high quality of students who choose our programs to develop their doctorates and become independent researchers. It is also the result of strong institutional support, both at the level of the programs and faculties as well as the Graduate School, which, in addition to accompanying and guiding students in their application process, continuously monitors the quality of our doctorates and for the strengthening of the formative experience”pointed out the rector of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Ignacio Sánchez.
At the moment, This call is the main source of funding for doctoral studies in Chile and registered a total of 2,440 applications this year, which represents an increase compared to 2,298 last year.. For the 2,142 admissible applications received, a number of 900 scholarships were finally assigned, representing an overall award rate of 42%.
“It fills us with hope that every year we have a significant number of students who decide to come to the UC to train as doctors, and thereby prepare to address the great challenges of the future through research and the creation of new knowledge. However, we are concerned that the total number of scholarships awarded by ANID remains at the same 900 as the previous year. As the cut-off points show, there is still a lot of space to finance students of excellence and thereby contribute to alleviating the strong deficit of researchers that we have as a country. Taking into account the level of excellence that doctorates have reached in Chile, it is essential that the Ministry of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation give strong support to advanced training in our country with a significant increase in the number of scholarships”pointed out Pedro Bouchon, Vice Chancellor for Research.
Some changes for this 2023
The National doctoral scholarship provides financial support in all areas of knowledge for a maximum period of four years. This year, unlike the previous ones, a modification was incorporated in the bases so that the final ruling tended towards parity in the allocation of scholarships between women and men, always ensuring the academic quality of the applications received.
Thus, the 900 scholarships were distributed equally, assigning 450 to women and 450 to men, and with cutoff scores of 4,263 and 4,385, respectively. In this way, of the total of 182 scholarships assigned to UC students, 94 were for women and 88 for men, which reflects the impact of this new policy since the previous year the numbers were 80 women and 104 men..
On the other hand, although it is observed that the progressive decrease of foreign applicants to this instrument is maintained (665 in 2023, compared to 729 in 2022 and with 807 in 2021), the UC maintained the leadership in awarding students from other countries, with 34 scholarships.
Diego Cosmelli, director of the Graduate School, indicated that “The awarding of 182 new scholarships maintains UC as a leading institution in the training of new researchers. We find interesting the initiatives that go in the direction of reducing the gender gaps in the various instruments for financing science. But it is important that the policies are analyzed from a structural perspective, addressing, for example, the difference in the applications that continue to be dominated by men, or those that may exist in the different disciplinary areas, since without a doubt in the STEM areas (Science , Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) the situation is not the same as in the Social Sciences. This would be an appropriate moment to include certain adjustments to the doctoral training financing model that takes into account this and other variables of strategic interest for the country”.