Mr. Director,
One of the advantages of the previous PSU and PDT was that, with normalized scores, the percentage distribution of students in each bracket was the same every year. Certainly, this constituted an “advantage” for the projection of public expenditure on credits and scholarships, since the number of beneficiaries could be estimated with high confidence. For example, the requirement of 475 average PSU score to access the Solidarity Fund or the CAE Credit was equivalent to 57% of the students, in the case of the requirement of 500 points of the Bicentennial Scholarship it was equivalent to 47% of the applicants, and in the case of the 600 points of the Pedagogical Vocation Scholarship it was equivalent to 16%.
Although the PAES scores do not have the normalization of the old PSU, the Undersecretariat of Higher Education together with the DEMRE estimated the scores based on the new methodology and scale for each of the student benefits. Thus, according to the previous examples, to access the Solidarity Fund or the CAE the average PAES score is 485 points, for the Bicentennial Scholarship 510 and for the Pedagogical Vocation Scholarship 625.
Now that the scores are known, the distributions of the potential beneficiaries were as follows: 74% could benefit from the Solidarity Fund or the CAE, 67% with the Bicentennial Scholarship and 32% with the Pedagogical Vocation Scholarship.
This is therefore a very good step forward compared to previous processes. At present more students will be able to access the main scholarships and credits for the university system.
Cristobal Castro
General Director of Institutional Analysis Universidad de Las Américas
Follow us on
