The Coordinator of Representatives of Students of Public Universities (CREPU) has been denouncing a reality that public administrations seem to want to ignore: chronic infinance of the Spanish university system. Despite the promise of reaching a 1% investment in GDP in higher education, the Organic Law of the University System (LOSU) is still not fulfilled and public universities continue to suffer the consequences of an insufficient and unequal financing model.
The problem is not new, but its persistence threatens to undermine the pillars of public education and quality. While countries such as Denmark or Sweden allocate a considerably higher percentage to their university systems, in Spain we remain anchored between 0.7% and 0.8% of GDP. This lack of commitment to higher education not only limits the formative quality, but also deepens the inequalities between territories and
Regional differences in university investment are a clear sample of the lack of political will to guarantee an equitable system. We see autonomous communities such as Catalonia or the Canary Islands that do not reach 0.8%, being well below the 1% demanded by the LOSU. This translates into precarious infrastructure, lack of resources for research and an unequal training offer according to the community in which it is studied. In other words, the place of birth or residence
They barely allocate between 6,000 and 7,500 euros per student, while in Cantabria or Castilla-La Mancha the figure exceeds 8,500 euros. This imbalance not only affects material conditions, but also the capacity for research and development, compromising the new generations and competitiveness of the country in the international context.
Given the lack of public financing, universities have increasingly resorted to the private sector to alleviate their economic precariousness and rates remain high in many communities. This situation not only reduces access to higher education for the most vulnerable sectors, but also makes it a space where purchasing power determines training capacity.
If the current trend is maintained, the public university system will be mired in an elitist model where only those who can afford to assume the growing costs will have access to quality training. This mercantilist drift contradicts the principle of equal opportunities and puts the role of the university at risk as a engine of social and economic development.
From Crep we not only denounce this situation, but we demand concrete and urgent measures to reverse it. However, the passivity of public administrations is unacceptable. It is not a lack of resources, but an absolute lack of political will to invest in the future. While the Central Government and the Autonomous Communities are shielded in bureaucratic debates and budgetary excuses, the university system continues to deteriorate, condemning thousands of students to an insufficient education and more and more limited opportunities.
Higher education is not a luxury or a privilege, but a fundamental right and an investment in social and economic progress. But administrations have chosen to look the other way, perpetuating a model that favors the precariousness of knowledge and the leakage of talent abroad.
To reverse this crisis, it is essential that the commitment to allocate at least 1% of GDP to higher education is fulfilled, ensuring sufficient and stable financing. In addition, it is urgent that the funds are distributed equally among the autonomous communities, preventing territorial differences from affecting the quality of education.
It is also essential to reinforce the system of scholarships and study aid, so that access to the university does not depend on the economic capacity of each family, but on the merit and academic effort of students. For this, at least a third of the budget increase should be used to guarantee equity and reduce the dependence of private resources.
The autonomous communities, meanwhile, must commit to multiannual financing plans that ensure stability and predictability in university investment. Without a long -term strategy, higher education will continue at the mercy of volatile political decisions, without guaranteeing the sustainability of the system.
The central government must also assume a more active role in the structural financing of public universities, establishing agreements with the autonomous communities to ensure that resources are sufficient. Higher education cannot continue to be a secondary issue in the political agenda, nor depend on budget adjustments that condemn it to precariousness.
Administrations cannot continue to relegate higher education to a secondary plane. University financing must become a priority of the political agenda, not only because it affects hundreds of thousands of students in the present, but because it will determine the capacity of innovation, research and development of Spain in the future
