The Minister of Universities, Joan Subirats, has announced this Wednesday, in statements to the media before appearing in the
Commission of Science, Innovation and Universities
of the Congress, his intention that the new Organic Law of the University System (LOSU) include a
period initial training
for all those who start their activity as teachers at the University.
"Our intention is that the University ceases to be an exception in the sense that to start any educational activity,
anyone who wants to be a teacher or professor has to go through a training course
; at the University it is not like that; what we are going to incorporate in LOSU is the idea that any professor who begins his professional activity at the University, in his first year, has to go through a training course", he announced.
As explained by the minister, reinforcing teaching activity in Spanish universities is "very important", since
universities cannot be just "academies" or "laboratories"
.
The idea, as he has detailed, is that said pedagogical training is compulsory and is carried out in the first year of the doctor's assistant position, which is the figure of entry to the academic career.
The idea of improving training in teaching practice is motivated by the minister's "own professional experience" as a university professor, as Subirats himself has acknowledged: "When I started in 1974, after a few days I was giving a course in Political Education in San Agustín
without anyone telling me what teaching classes consisted of"
.
"After 47 years of university, I have also seen what was happening; I have learned a lot from my previous teachers; I have been able to share my pedagogical experience with people who were just starting out and
I think that reflection is what has brought me here
", has told.
In addition, he believes in this initiative for other reasons, such as the technological changes that have occurred in recent decades and the need to
reinforce the role of attendance
.
"That there is some kind of initial training is necessary," considers the minister.
Now, as for how this initial course will be, the minister has been cautious, stating that the Ministry
will have to see how it will approach it
, taking into account the powers of the autonomous communities and the autonomy of the universities themselves.
"It's about finding a way to do this in the best possible way, without it being a burden," he added.
In any case, Subirats recalls that "fortunately", all universities have
teacher training and teaching innovation units
, so it would be a matter of "incorporating that experience" to make this measure possible.
Likewise, according to sources from the Ministry, in addition to this initial training, the new Law will give a
boost to continuous training
so that teachers can be updated and retrained in the most suitable teaching methodologies in each discipline.
the future law
The preliminary draft of the Organic Law of the University System (LOSU) is still seeking contributions from the university community with the aim of being approved by the Council of Ministers in "this period of sessions", according to the minister.
"I want us to
present this project before summer
", he has requested, trusting that its parliamentary process will end in "the first quarter of 2023".
As he explained to the Commission, his idea of the LOSU
is not to "start from scratch" but to "take advantage" of the work carried out by his predecessor
, Manuel Castells.
"The law cannot go into a very detailed, very regulatory field, because it would be contradictory from the point of view of the system," adds Subirats, who wants the LOSU to be a "basic law" that guarantees equality and diversity of the university system and allow the deployment of university autonomy and the powers of the autonomous communities.
In addition, it is committed to the fact that this regulation is capable of reinforcing the rights of the student body and combating the job insecurity of the teaching staff in order to prevent the University from becoming a "fragile" system.
conviction petition
During the spokesperson's turn, the deputies of PP, Vox and Cs have asked the minister to
condemn the "attacks"
that are taking place, according to what they affirm, in Catalan universities against 'constitutionalist' students and professors.
The 'popular' María Jesús Moro has begun by lamenting the "lost opportunity" that the Law of University Coexistence has meant, already approved, due to the changes that were introduced as a result of an amendment by the PSOE, United We Can and ERC.
"It is not possible to recognize freedom in university spaces
if freedom is linked to a specific ideology
; you as a minister have to condemn it", she has claimed in reference to the situation in Catalan universities.
From Cs, Juan Ignacio López-Bas (Cs) has raised the issue of "aggressions" against
non-independence
students in Catalan universities, expressing his "concern" about this issue and demanding his "condemnation" from the minister for these acts.
And the Vox deputy, Pedro Fernández, has accused the minister of being a "collaborator" of those who are trying to "break Spain", as he has reminded him that he went to vote in the call for the illegal referendum on October 1, 2017, as well as who defined himself as "sovereignist".
Like the deputies of the PP and Cs, Fernández has demanded that the minister
condemn "the violent attacks
that occur in Catalan universities."
In response to these deputies, Mariona Illamola (JxCat) and Marta Rosique (ERC) have
defended the Catalan university model
and have rejected that there is violence in them.
student participation
"There are no attacks, another thing is to seek to provoke attacks and conflict where there is none,
a university campus should not be politicized
," said Illamola, who welcomes the minister's announcement on initial teacher training and that the LOSU wants to approve as a basic law.
Meanwhile, Rosique (ERC) has asked Subirats that LOSU
encourage student participation
and recognize the right to association and student strike.
In addition, he has proposed that Catalan universities have professors who speak the co-official language and that the rectors have a mandate of 4 years, not 6.
For his part, the 'purple' deputy Javier Sánchez Serna, has focused on some of the aspects that, in his opinion, the future Law should include, such as
"dignifying and stabilizing" the teaching staff
and putting an end to the "precariousness", training throughout life or gender equality, issues that the socialist Roberto García Morís has also mentioned, while Josune Gorospe (PNV) has proposed that university internships be paid.
Conforms to The Trust Project criteria
Know more
See links of interest
Last News
Paul Married
Ukraine
Translator
Topics
Work calendar 2022
How to do
events
Best schools Spain
Chelsea - Lille
Villarreal-Juventus
Benfica-Ajax
Atletico Madrid - Manchester United