Los Programas de Becas Internacionales de la Secretaría de Educación Superior, Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación del Ecuador frente a las realidades de las familias monoparentales

The Ecuadorian Secretariat for Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation established, some years ago, a wide offer of international scholarship programs to pursue studies of graduate and postgraduate level. These programs constitute a pivotal element in the institutional and governmental policy for “human talent development", therefore, the scholarships are awarded based on meritocratic considerations (Universities of Excellence Scholarship Program, for example) or by national contest (Open Convocation Scholarship Program). But what happens when the conditions of participation and implementation of these scholarship programs, structured according to criteria of equality, reinforce the systematic exclusion of some individuals and groups? Starting from this question, this paper proposes an in-depth look at the accessibility that these international scholarship programs may offer to single parents. The analysis is complemented by exploring how the lack of equity criteria in the scholarship programs, may impact the ongoing process of strengthening higher education in Ecuador.