The Ford Motor Company Fund has granted Harvard a total of $15,000 to promote the recruitment and education of minority and female engineering students.

Thirty-five other universities, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), will receive similar grants, Leo J. Brennan, spokesman for the fund, said Tuesday.

The deans of the engineering schools may use the funds, which amount to $5000 a year for the next three years, at their discretion for either graduate students or undergraduates, he added.

However, Paul C. Martin '52, dean of the Division of Applied Sciences, and Robert E. Kaufmann '62, associate dean for finance and administration, both said Tuesday that they could not recall having received confirmation of the grant.

Frederick H. Abernathy, McKay Professor of Mechanical Engineering, said yesterday that he heard about the grant proposal last summer from Lee E. Landes, an executive at Ford, but that he has not received a letter confirming the grant.

"We're gratified to get the award, but with the support of one graduate student at $8000, it won't go far," Martin said.

Martin added that although the division does not have "an intensive special program" to recruit minority students and women, it supports affirmative action guidelines and solicits applications from such students.

A spokesman for the dean's office at MIT's engineering school said Tuesday she could not recall such a grant. Paul McQuillan, administrative assistant in MIT's electrical engineering and computer science department, said Tuesday he had not heard of the award either.