Second opinion. The six rectors of public universities in the Community of Madrid will launch this Thursday a common message to the Government of the Community of Madrid led by Isabel Díaz Ayuso: either increase the transfers that the Executive has planned for next year to the centers or then, their viability and the quality of the service they offer will be seriously compromised.
The Boards of Directors of the six public campuses will simultaneously approve a declaration in which they “express their deep concern about a situation in which the commitment and quality of their public service are called into question, almost daily”, according to the advancement. The country. The note, which this newspaper was able to consult, will be accompanied by an open letter to the president in which, in more direct and aggressive language, they ask for more money to simply survive or even to comply with the law.
The rectors demand that the president increase the annual nominal transfer to universities by at least 4%, an amount which increases the general education budget, explain sources from the Conference of Rectors of Madrid Universities (Cruma). The regional government is currently considering an increase of 0.47%, according to the draft budget published by the Community of Madrid. “The allocation of subsidies ignores the arguments that we presented to the ministry”, deplore the rectors, who recall that “the public universities of Madrid have accumulated 15 years of underfinancing and a progressive reduction in income, without any sign of improvement”.
In any case, it is a minimum survival figure: the rectors estimate that they need an additional 200 million euros and this is how they transferred them to the Community of Madrid.
The six universities are resigned to now asking for a “minimum” of 45 million euros more (than 4%) compared to the less than six extras – for six centers – offered by the regional government. In any case, the sources explain, this is a minimum survival figure: the rectors estimate they need an additional 200 million euros and they have therefore also transferred them to the Community.
University sources speak of a “very serious conflict” in the making and predict that there will be “legal actions” against “the Autonomous Community which finances its Public Universities the worst”. A few years ago, thanks to this legal route, extraordinary revenues were gained that have allowed universities to survive in recent years.
An increase that covers nothing
“The draft budget approved by the Government of the Community of Madrid does not envisage the transfers necessary to face the impact of inflation on supplies, fully cover the increase in salaries agreed by the Central Government, nor finance the requirements of the new Universities Law”, begins the letter which will be approved on the six public campuses this Thursday. “It also does not provide sufficient resources to guarantee the essential maintenance of buildings, essential to their operation and safety in adequate conditions.”
The situation is desperate in universities, say the rectors. The Community, responsible for around 80% of their financing, transfers less money to them today – in hard euros, not comparable – than in 2009. With the aggravating circumstance that, since then, the CPI has increased by more than 30%.
The rectors’ open letter speaks of a “critical situation”, “alarming”, “practically unsustainable”, “15 years of underfinancing”, “structural deficit” or even “a setback in real terms for the funding of universities”, and concludes: “The lack of investment seriously undermines the conditions necessary to ensure an adequate environment for teaching, learning and research.
At an event last April, the first in which the six rectors came together to raise their voices in a desperate cry about their situation, some senior officials explained that “80% of general revenues will be intended to pay the chapter 1 (salaries). We use 15% to open buildings, to turn on the heating. We have 5% left (of around 200 million euros) for everything else.” Community funding, they claim, “does not even cover staff costs”. Universities face structural expenses with extraordinary revenues. Until now they have been able to continue operating thanks to money coming from a series of lawsuits against the Community of Madrid that were settled in their favor, but this is coming to an end.
The richest, the one who invests the least
The rectors are gradually raising the tone of public protest against the Community of Madrid, perhaps realizing that doing it privately, the path chosen so far, has had no effect. Madrid is the richest region in Spain, but also the one that invests the least per university student. It is the region with the highest public prices and also – by far – the one that most favors private provision: there are already 13 private centers and adding up, if they have negative reports from the General Policy Council Academic from the Ministry of Sciences. , Innovation and Universities or not. Almost all proposals are approved in Madrid.
The president has never hesitated to publicly confront campuses, including Complutense University. When Israel invaded the Gaza Strip, it criticized “the usual international left-wing movements, which are now becoming strong in the academic life of all cities.” He explored this idea a few days ago, which earned him reproaches from rector Joaquín Goyache.
Problems are accumulating on public campuses, insist the rectors. Added to this lack of structural funding is an increase in current expenses due to the entry into force of the new university law, LOSU, which provides for a reduction in teaching loads – more teachers will be needed to teach the same class hours – and an attempt to reduce the precariousness of teaching – an effect that universities have had since the previous crisis of 2008. Rectors do not guarantee that they will be able to respect the law.
“In accordance with the LOSU, the teaching commitment of certain categories of teachers had to be reduced, without having been able to hire the number of teachers necessary to compensate for this reduction given the precarious economic situation described and the limitation of the number of teachers at the time. “replacement” education rates, officials admit in their letter.
And then they explain that the Community not only does not increase the financing of the minimum amount required, but that it did not want to take advantage of the plan by which the Ministry of Universities will finance the incorporation of 3,400 additional teachers throughout the year. Spain. The regional government affirmed at the time that this plan obliged it to execute certain contracts (800 among all the Autonomous Communities) and also to finance these positions once the contracts were completed, which the universities will pay for, within six years.
“Nothing has materialized in the Community of Madrid – and no other possible alternative has been proposed to us – so as to authorize this necessary growth of personnel and the future stabilization of their corresponding positions, as well as their financial allocation. with the total guarantee that its cost will not end up falling on the current exhausted nominal grants of the Community of Madrid, with which it is barely possible to pay 80% of the payroll of the staff of our public universities”, lament the leaders .
