The course began with the only diploma in Sign Language and Deaf Community in Spain, taught at the Rey Juan Carlos University (URJC). Students of this degree have not received lessons for weeks because there are not enough teachers to cover the subjects, as several of them have reported and the university has partially admitted.
“[A principios de curso] We started to notice that teachers’ names were missing in the virtual classroom and we tried to contact them by email, without success. We did not understand the situation, the University had not notified us of anything,” explains Roger Reig, one of the students concerned. He is enrolled in six subjects this semester and in three he does not have a teacher.
The problem comes from the fact that the URJC canceled the contracts of many visiting professors, a maneuver that particularly affected these studies. URJC had an unusually high number of faculty on this type of contract – at least compared to other universities – a policy that was partly used irregularly to circumvent the established ban on hiring staff after the 2008 crisis.
A spokesperson for the rectorate affirms that the new university law (LOSU) requires that professors who had been hired as visitors cease to be so. The standard does not remove this figure – it is in article 83: it involves hiring prestigious professionals from outside the university for two years without them having to go through a selection procedure – but it has tightened the conditions, it requires reducing the temporality of the models and as a result of all this the URJC has decided to reduce the number of visitors.
Instead, LOSU proposes to open these positions to public competition, a circumstance which has caused a small confrontation between the rectorate and the university departments. According to the URJC, the implementation of the regulations took certain centers on the wrong foot – “recruitment depends on the departments”, explained the spokesperson – and the students paid for it at the start of the course.
As the diploma coordinator who found himself without teachers explained to his students: “We have an irregular situation which, unfortunately, goes beyond what we can do from the coordination of the diploma or the Faculty itself and we have a group of teachers. who don’t “They were even hired by the University.”
12% of visitors
Rey Juan Carlos University had a significantly high number of visiting professors: according to the Transparency Portal, in 2023 there were 321 such positions, which represented almost 12% of its entire teaching staff, a high figure by compared to other Spanish universities. , where they have single digits. However, URJC is not the only one experiencing difficulties: another Madrid campus, the Carlos III University of Getafe, also has a high number of these contracts.
On August 31, the URJC made the decision to directly remove the number of visiting professors, informing these teachers that their contract was ending on the same day. As a result, many Sign Language and Deaf Community Diploma subjects were unable to start. Those affected insist that no one informed them before classes started. The only thing they received was the coordinator’s email accusing the rectorate.
From the Rey Juan Carlos University, they confirmed to elDiario.es that “there are only 11 subjects without teachers” – of the 37 that the program has – and that the situation should be resolved this week, when the public competitions will be resolved. .
Students have been demanding explanations for weeks. “The only thing we got was silence,” said Víctor Castaño, sign language and social work licensing delegate. It was only when they met in an assembly on September 26 that they received an offer to speak with the Dean of the Faculty on Monday.
During this meeting, the University indicated that it had activated two job sites: one for associate professors and another for doctoral professors. The resolution with the final score is expected to be released tomorrow; On Wednesday they will start contacting the first selected and next week the process will be finalized.
Once the question of teaching staff has been resolved, it remains to negotiate how the lost month of lessons will be recovered. “Different solutions have been proposed, but they all involve students and teachers making an extra effort, somehow extending schedules to make up for missed classes. I don’t think we will reach a solution that will satisfy everyone,” lamented Víctor Castaño. Furthermore, he added that the most worrying thing is that the University does not intend to take responsibility. He will not issue an official statement or apologize, leaving those involved to resolve a problem that is not their business.
