Isabel Díaz Ayuso, despite denouncing the economic suffocation of the regional government to the six public universities, has been controversial but fruitful. The rectors have been denouncing – they think that they invade their autonomy and does not guarantee that they will be well financed – and now, after meeting with Ayuso, they have agreed to see each week with the Minister of Education, Emilio Viciana, to negotiate for the first time the norm. In the Complutense Governing Council, the issue has been addressed this Thursday.
“At the meeting last Friday, before the trip, the counselor told the rectors that they could have weekly meetings to analyze the content of the law together,” confirm from the Puerta del Sol. And they insist: “The Ministry has been meeting with them from autumn.” But communication has not fluid at any time and the rectors now see Ayuso “receptive” to dialogue. The trip is seen from the regional government as “a turning point.”
In parallel, in this council of Lacon huge economic trouble, rector Joaquín Goyache has announced that they have requested a loan of 30.8 million to the Community of Madrid to be able to face the beginning of the course, as confirmed to this newspaper two sources. The UCM press department, however, does not specify the figure: “The university is negotiating a mechanism of economic support with the Community of Madrid, whose conditions have not yet been defined.” To survive, the Rectorate had already ordered the Deans to cut 33% expenses to cover the year. He closed 2023 with a debt of 65 million euros.
If the community grants this loan to the UCM, it would have advantageous conditions with respect to those of the market. His intention with this departure is to be able to save the furniture until November, when the new budgets that aspire to be less Rácanos will be approved. Madrid does not allocate 0.5% of GDP to universities, when the intention is that all communities reach 1% in 2030. The average is now 0.7%.
They have been degrading as details of the lesuc were known. The counselor has noted them since. The auction came last week, when he assured the media that he worked in the law “always by the hand of the rectors and with very good harmony.” Ayuso also spoke on the same terms, which did not attain the truth: “We have been working on the law for many months and we continue to collaborate with the rectors, with their teams, with the social advice and with anyone who has something to say or contribute, to achieve among all the best possible law.”
The social councils, the organs that serve as a bridge between society and the university and that in Madrid preside over personalities designated by Ayuso – like the journalist Francisco Marhuenda or the former advisor of universities of citizens Eduardo Sicilia -, they are very well stopped in the bill, since they are granted more intervention power against the rectors. They receive a favor treatment from the community and, in fact, they soon had a copy of the draft law.
The rectors did not receive a copy officially until June 13, the last ones, when the text ran and the country had published the intention of predictably in these meetings with Viciana these articles will be modified, since experts question their legal and constitutional lace. After the meeting with the counselor, the rectors issued a shy statement, which between the lines made clear how skimmed they are. They asked for “early, loyal and effective participation of public universities in the elaboration of the norm.”
The Community of Madrid entirely assumed the expenses of displacement and stay of the rectors in Miami. There they transferred to Ayuso a series of red lines and warnings about the most problematic aspects of the text. This said, according to knowledgeable sources of the conversations, open to dialogue. The cruma, the conference that combines the six rectors of the public (Complutense, Autónoma, Carlos III, Polytechnic, Alcalá and Rey Juan Carlos), who will meet next Tuesday commanded by Alcalá, considers that the lesuc has to be substantially reduced and simplified. Its purpose is to lighten the content of some of the articles, which are too detailed.
According to these sources, Ayuso has stopped being proud of investment in Madrid universities – the worst financed from Spain by student – and recognizes, as any official study or data says or rigorous study, which cannot continue in that situation. The Complutense already has where to cut off: it has put scissors to research aid, teaching innovation plans, development cooperation, works, resources, optional subjects … and, despite this, it maintains the guy in the rankings International and teaches of great quality.
Mobilization of the University Community
On June 5, the UCM cloister called to the mobilization of the entire university community, which is represented in that organ. “The current undecoriation affects the stability and dignification of the personnel, the update and maintenance of infrastructure, the capacity for innovation and generation of knowledge or equal opportunities for the students,” he recalled in a statement. The institution almost paralyzed the day of the strike, unlike the other five campuses, but the blackout dazzled its unemployment.
The UCM movement by the public has convened an assembly next Monday to begin profiling the protests of an autumn that is planned hot. The latest news – 100,000 euros for a escrache or an unauthorized demonstration – have outraged the university community, but they have met when the students were in full exams and point to finish the course.
“Student financing at this university is a third of the Spanish average, according to her predecessor in this newspaper – she faces a very complicated weeks, because the accounts of the campus are worse than expected. They will end the course with a great discovery, which they can face for the remnant they have left of the past, but that cannot be stretched much more.
The lack of funds question plans in progress from other universities. Carlos III wants to orient himself towards health sciences and the Polytechnic aspires to have medicine, but those bets are unfeasible if funds do not arrive.
