• EBAU.Manuel Castells wants "minimum criteria" throughout Spain in the Selectivity: "It can't be that I change so much for Autonomous Communities"
  • Promises. Castells will raise scholarships, lower fees and eliminate the figure of "false associated professors"

The counselors in charge of Universities of the autonomous communities have expressed their concern on Monday that the drop in enrollment announced by Minister Manuel Castells ends up being defrayed by their pockets. They do not look badly at the measure, but they demand from the central government a more concrete commitment to financing.

Castells and Pedro Duque, Minister of Science and Innovation, met Monday with the advisors of the branch within the framework of the General Conference of University Policy , the first meeting held by the head of Universities with the autonomous communities.

During the three-hour meeting, Castells tried to mediate with the regional representatives to convince them of the need to unify the prices of the races, which are now very different. The issue of fees, which generates a lot of debate, has focused a good part of the session, as the advisors have explained on leaving. The minister has declined to make statements.

Students demand the drop in enrollment since the years of the economic crisis, but in the university community it is interpreted, in line with what Castells thought before becoming a minister, that all that is to decrease prices is to remove competitiveness and autonomy from the campuses, which are financed thanks to what the families pay, the help of the autonomous communities and the financing of the State. Having this money allows universities to work without having to depend on the gifts of the government on duty.

Without fork

What Castells wants to do on a "priority" basis is to promote the reduction of prices to levels prior to 2012 through "equitable budgetary agreements with the autonomous communities". Before the economic crisis, the rates did not have forks, but a maximum price was established for the whole of the autonomous communities (15% of the total cost of the race) and the amounts in all regions were similar, around This 15%.

With Decree 14/2012, Minister José Ignacio Wert (PP) put a price range so that the autonomous communities could raise prices, between 15% and 25% of the total cost of the race, which, in the In practice, it caused higher prices and much disparity between autonomous communities.

In 2018, Wert's successor, Íñigo Méndez de Vigo , announced the possibility of framing the fork between 0% and 25%, in accordance with the Budget Law, which allowed the first degree enrollments and qualifying masters to be free.

The aim of Castells is to put a maximum on the line of what was in 2012 (15% of the price) and start the directors to guarantee a return to homogeneity between regions in some way.

"Concern" in all communities

The directors do not oppose this measure, but they are cautious about the fees, because they believe that what seems like a good idea may turn against them. The Minister of Education, Cristina Uriarte (PNV), has spoken of "concern" in relation to the announcement and recalled that her region has been since 2014 "with frozen prices."

"The descent has to be accompanied by an improvement in the financing model of the autonomous communities," said Rosa Ana Rodríguez , Minister of Education and Culture of Castilla-La Mancha (PSOE). Something similar has been said by Maru Díaz , Minister of Science, University and Knowledge Society of Aragon , of Podemos, recalling that there are autonomous communities that are "underfunded."

It is the same word that Miguel Motas , Minister of Employment, Research and Universities of Murcia, of the PP, has said that the most they can do is "freeze prices." "But with a budget deficit of 150 million euros every year we cannot lower them," he warned.

Castells is committed to studying possible ways of financing. One of them is the figure of the program contracts, which would guarantee that the State pays the price difference. But he has not detailed the additional cost of the measure or how much additional money his Ministry could offer. "We came with high expectations and we leave with high uncertainties, the minister has not explained well what he intends, and we can not play with the figures without knowing the impact of resources," Eduardo Sicilia , Minister of Science advisor , Universities and Innovation of the Community of Madrid , of Citizens.

He said that, in the case of Madrid, the impact of this measure would be around 120 million euros, three times what is invested in the IMDEA network of Madrid institutes of advanced studies. "It is the entire R & D & I budget of the Community of Madrid. Do we have to stop researching to lower rates?" And it has requested a "coordinated action between the autonomous communities and the State", as stated in the LOFCA, the Organic Law on Financing of the Autonomous Communities; specifically, in article 3.1.

Sources from the Ministry of Universities of the Community of Madrid have also said that "an electoral decision cannot be made and paid by the autonomous communities. In times of limited resources, we cannot assume a new hole."

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