Macao’s Education and Youth Affairs Bureau will provide scholarships to 13 local students so that they can study at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon.

The studies will be during the academic year 2016/2017, the bureau (DSEJ, in the Portuguese acronym) announced in a statement this week.

Those students selected for sponsorship will be attending a preparatory year at the Portuguese university, according to DSEJ. Successful students could later on gain direct access to a degree programme there, such as a bachelor in Portuguese and Spanish, the bureau added. Those interested in continuing their studies at the Portuguese institution could be eligible for financial support from DSEJ worth between 105,000 patacas (US$13,147) and 200,000 patacas per academic year, the bureau said.

The initial funding of the 13 local students is part of the Government’s Subsidy Scheme for Nurturing Portuguese Language Teachers and Language Professionals. The scheme was first launched by DSEJ in 2013/2014. Its goal is to encourage “Macao’s excellent students to attend courses in Portugal aimed at teaching the Portuguese language,” the bureau said. It added that the initiative could help to train people who would go on either to be teachers of Portuguese, or become qualified linguists in other professional capacities.