Dominican Republic's Mescyt launches 1,500 international scholarships with new Harvard and MIT agreements

The Dominican Republic’s Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology (Mescyt) announced a new phase in its international scholarship programme. Minister Rafael Santos Badía said the government has cleared outstanding debts to foreign universities and signed strategic agreements with Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and several top European institutions, including the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Universidad de Barcelona and UNED.

At a ceremony attended by President Luis Abinader, Mescyt delivered 1,500 scholarships for the upcoming academic year. The awards focus on fields linked to national development, with 70 % allocated to STEM disciplines such as artificial intelligence, data science, cybersecurity, renewable energy and biotechnology. Administration (251 recipients) and engineering (229) are the most popular programmes, followed by computer science, health and education. The initiative also introduced the "Excelencia sin Barreras" programme, which will grant an additional 5,000 domestic scholarships to high‑performing high‑school graduates.

The ministry aims to ensure that public funds are used efficiently to train Dominican students in high‑quality programmes that meet labour‑market needs, while restoring the country’s credit with foreign universities.