He Rector of the Public University of Navarre, Ramón Gonzaloin the presence of the President of the Government of Navarre, María Chivite, questioned the “true commitment of the Government to its University” due to the inattention that has led it to not comply in many points with the Organic Law of the university system. Thus, he stressed during the opening ceremony of the academic year, the urgent need that the UPNA has a financing agreement This helps “ensure that students, institutions and businesses continue to benefit from a strong and engaged university.”
As mentioned by the economic circumstances The drifts of the national and international situation prevented the agreement signed in 2021 from “fully” meeting the needs of the UPNA. make the situation “untenable”.
In April, he explained, they presented their needs and proposals to the regional government, but today has no financing commitment which allows it to fulfill its missions and to “face with guarantees” the challenges that await it.
Furthermore, recent publications on spending ceiling for 2025 as well as the forecasts for the coming years make them “questioning the government’s real commitment to its university” he acknowledged.
The Organic Law of the University System (LOSU), he stressed, “substantially modifies essential aspects” of its operation, including the structure of the teaching staff and the obligation to create new services.
“Must adapt the contracts of more than 500 peoplemanage as many new recruits as possible and reduce class hours associate professors,” he said, stressing that this means that additional hiring of 76 teachers with an investment of more than 2.8 million and denouncing that, with the courses already started, they do not have the authorization to hire them nor the funds.
This law also establishes a minimum 5% of the budget to own research programshe recalled, stressing that currently they can only allocate 3.5% to these programs for this purpose.
Added to these challenges, he noted, are factors such as “low pay» of the faculty compared to neighboring autonomous communities or the need to launch the new Faculty of Health Sciences, which implies “an increase in personnel and service costs”.
The LOSU, he recalled, sets the objective of allocating at least 1% of GDP for public spending on public university education by 2030, but according to a 2019 study The Foral Community only invests 0.42% be the second autonomous community with the best investment.
“Should we teach new generations that laws must not be respected or that legislators are not responsible or consistent with their decisions? asked.
He also warned of the existence of serious challenges in internationalization Because even if 30% of its students can participate in these experiences, they need the support of private entities due to the lack of funds to cover the existing demand. In addition, he assured, They also cannot meet mobility objectives teaching staff.
After listening to her speech, the president announced that the provincial government “works side by side” with the UPNA and “maintains periodic meetings with all its agents in order to collect their opinions and contributions” and to be able to present a “first text” of the provincial law on the University “by the end of this year.”
In his speech, Chivite stressed that “this will be a pioneering law in Navarre and we will be the second community to have this type of regulation,” he stressed.
He also announced that the Government of Navarre is currently working on updating the multi-year economic agreement for financing the UPNA, since the current one ends this year, “a commitment that implies the necessary balance between budgetary expansion and sustainability of expenditure.”
