• SEVERAL readers – including Kimberley Mark from the UK and Milton Reyes in Honduras – have requested information about pursuing a university career in Cuba.

Thanks to the revolutionary government’s policy of cooperation with Third World countries, 38,760 foreign students from 120 different countries graduated between 1961 and 1999 in various levels of education. During the 1980s, Cuba was the number one country worldwide with the greatest per capita percentage of foreign scholarship students. The program was cut back during the following decade due to the special period and the fierce economic crisis that accompanied it.

In order to continue with this contribution towards development, following a gradual economic recovery, various forms of cooperation have been developed over the last few years, such as the Integral Healthcare Plan. The Plan forms part of the Latin American Medical School, where some 10,000 students from Africa and Latin America – and even some from poor communities in the United States – are studying free of charge. There is also the International School for Sports and Physical Education that opened in 2000.

There are currently some 17,000 young people from abroad on higher education courses throughout the country, of which almost 90% receive free board and lodging, food and educational courses, the same as Cuban scholarship students.

Aside from these agreements with the governments of Third World countries, there is also an opportunity for other students to take fee-paying university courses. The price for each year’s matriculation is considerably lower than charges for foreign students in other countries and varies from $4,500-7,000 per year.

The entry requirements for higher education establishments are: an age limit of 25 years; high school or sixth form qualifications; high school, birth and health certificates legalized by the Cuban embassy in the country of residence. These documents must be presented to the Cuban Ministry of Higher Education in Cuba, preferably before July 25 in the year in which you wish to begin the course.

Katlyn Velasco, a high school student from the United States and D. Rehirchuk (country unknown) request information about the printed edition of Granma International, in which languages it is published and where it is sent.

Granma International is a Cuban weekly newspaper available in Spanish, English, Portuguese and French with monthly editions in German and Italian. 50,000 copies are printed and distributed throughout the world to individual subscribers and also through exchanges with political and religious organizations, libraries, universities, etc. There are also monthly reprints in French (in Canada and France), in English (Canada) and in Portuguese (in Brazil). The information that we publish includes a diversity of cultural, social, political, scientific, and sporting issues, principally regarding Cuba and Latin America, although we also include international current affairs.