The commitment of France to welcome 700 additional students and academic Haitian in the network of French universities of the West Indies and Guyana (with a engagement clause to return in Haiti at the end of training) will be realized at the end of the academic year 2011/2012 and nearly a hundred students have already returned to Haiti.

450 Haitian students and teachers were beneficiaries of a French funding during the 2010-2011 academic year. Initially these mobilities have been supported mainly on credits of universities, but also of institutions, associations, or French organizations.

In a second step exceptional credits (1 million euros in 2010 on the exceptional envelope devoted to Haiti) have enabled the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs to fund the four months of scholarship remaining in 2011 (March-June).

A new envelope of €2.5 million will help to fulfill the objectives during the 2011-2012 academic year (96 new scholarships and 128 recurring scholarships on the academic year 2011-2012).

A particular attention is paid to the issue of return of students. The different actors of this mobility device (university consortium Franco-Haitian, position and department) have conducted on this issue a reflection with proposals :

• follow-up actions could be part of PARMSESH (Project Support to the Restructuring and Modernisation of Higher Education System in Haiti): Haitian universities are committed to recruiting research students who have completed their mobility in France.

• The Embassy of France in Port-au-Prince is also exploring the establishment of a "mechanism to assist the return" of university students by funding the first month's salary in anticipation of a relay by the Haitian Ministry of Higher Education.

• It is also working with partners to develop a platform connected to the world of work offering to the scholarship students, but also to members of the diaspora jobs, internships in companies in line with the Haitian profiles which are in France. It will close ties in this perspective with the Franco-Haitian Chamber of Commerce, NGOs, in research of international profiles.

See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-1181-haiti-france-scholarship-program-partially-funded.html

HL/ HaitiLibre