The World Bank’s Board of Directors approved a loan of $171 million for Mexico to expand student access to tertiary education. The Mexican government had been attempting to increase enrolments and guarantee a higher level of quality within the higher education sector for a number of years. The World Bank loan aims to provide a well needed boost to this policy. The loan will support the Tertiary Education Student Assistance Project which aims to foster sustainable and equitable expansion of tertiary education through student assistance. Individual programmes that will benefit directly from the loan will include a national regulatory framework for assistance to tertiary education students, as well as expanding the PRONABES national scholarship program for academically qualified tertiary education students demonstrating financial need.

The Tertiary Education Student Assistance Project is one half of a wider programme to improve the Mexican education sector, with another $240 million directed at improving the quality of basic public schools through the School Based Management Project. The World Bank’s support in basic and secondary education has been mirrored with similar loans for Sri Lanka and Argentina.