Yale University and CONACYT Increase Financial Aid for Mexican Nationals

New Haven, Conn. — Yale University and the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT) are launching an enhanced financial aid program to enable Mexican nationals to pursue Ph.D. studies at Yale’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

CONACYT will provide a supplemental grant for students from Mexico who matriculate as Ph.D. candidates at the Graduate School. This grant complements the generous financial package that Yale provides for all Ph.D. students attending the Graduate School. The University covers full tuition, a stipend of no less than $ 25,500 per year and free health insurance.

Yale President Richard C. Levin, Juan Carlos Romero-Hicks, Director General of CONACYT and Manuel Ontiveros Jiménez, CONACYT Deputy General Director of Policy and International Cooperation signed the agreement during a ceremony on December 3 at Yale. Rubén Beltrán Guerrero, Consul General of Mexico also attended the ceremony, as did Ernesto Zedillo, former President of Mexico and Director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization, who delivered remarks.

CONACYT, referred in English to as the National Council on Science and Technology, was created in 1970 as a public and decentralized unit of the Mexican Federal Government. Its mission is to strengthen scientific development and to guide the technological modernization of Mexico. It is also Mexico’s foremost agency supporting graduate education and research.

This grant replaces the supplemental loan offered by CONACYT under the original agreement with Yale that was established in 1992.

Yale’s partnership with CONACYT underscores the University’s commitment to recruit the best and brightest students and scholars from around the world. Yale will offer assistance to CONACYT to develop recruitment programs in Mexico.

Yale’s relationship with Mexico spans 150 years, beginning with the matriculation of the first Mexican in 1858. In addition to training leaders of Mexican society, Yale has made Mexico – and Latin America in general – the subject of much academic attention. The University has embarked on a number of collaborative programs with partners in Mexico and across Latin America, and plans to expand its ties with Mexico within the foreseeable future. The return of former President of Mexico Ernesto Zedillo to his alma mater as the head of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization is another strong nucleus around which Yale has built a significant partnership with Mexico.

Other authors on the study include Denis Rybin, Theodore Colton and Michael J. Corwin, M.D., of Boston University; Lauren A. Smith M.D., of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health; and George Lister, M.D., of University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

The study was supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Citation: Arch of Pediatr Adolesc Med. Vol. 163, No. 12 (December, 2009).