The local authorities have applauded this Friday the proclamation as rector of the University of Salamanca of Juan Manuel Corchado, responsible for a cheating industry that has allowed him to boast of being fourth most cited Spanish scientist in his field, thanks to dozens of fake profiles, to thousands of self-citations and to require his workers for years to cite him up to 20 times in each of their studies. The solemn ceremony took place in the legendary auditorium of the university, in which the then rector, Miguel de Unamuno, proclaimed on October 12, 1936: “To win is not to convince.”
Standing with the rector’s baton already in his hands, dressed in the black cap and the heck, Corchado has received a long ovation, led from the stands by the applause of Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, president of the Junta de Castilla y León, and by the clapping in the first row of the audience from the mayor of Salamanca, Carlos García Carbayo, both from the Popular Party. “There will be nothing, absolutely nothing, that will stop us. I am sure that, in addition to winning, with our works we will also be able to convince,” stated Corchado, paraphrasing Unamuno.
The rector, born in Salamanca 53 years ago, now has the key to an annual budget of almost 290 million of euros. Corchado has already announced that its intention is to build a new campus on the old lands of Mercasalamanca, next to the railway station, with the help of the Salamanca City Council and the Junta de Castilla y León. A year ago, the council gave up a municipal building of 700,000 euros in the same area to the AIR Institute, a private entity – created by Corchado himself – that will lead a 3.5 million euro project to promote the digitalization of companies in the region.
The political scientist Manuel Alcantara, professor emeritus at the University of Salamanca, speaks with complete freedom because he is about to retire. “Corchado, if he had a minimum of responsibility, he should not have taken office as rector,” he believes. Alcántara remembers the strange surprise resignation of the previous rector, Ricardo Rivero, on March 7. “There were not enough explanations and it was an act of irresponsibility. “Very likely there was an agreement with Corchado,” he assures. “Elections were called over the head of María José Rodríguez Conde, the replacement rector, who was forced to urgently call elections. They boycotted it in such a way that had to resign six days later. They did not allow an alternative candidacy to be set up,” he denounces.
Corchado ended up running alone in the elections for rector on May 7 and received the support of 6.5% of the 33,000 university students who were called to vote, with half of the professors voting blank as a sign of protest. “Corchado is an unedifying figure. He worries me about the prestige of the University of Salamanca,” warns Alcántara, promoter of the Institute of Iberoamerica of the institution. On May 3, the Ministry of Science requested a report on Corchado from the Spanish Research Ethics Committee, following the revelations about his cheating published by this newspaper. The Springer Nature publishing house also investigates the works of the professor and his collaborators, who go so far as to dedicate more than 90% of references of his publications to Corchado, a trick that makes the professor rise in the ranks. rankings international.
The president of the Junta de Castilla y León has hugged Corchado. “It is an honor for me to participate in this inauguration ceremony. Congratulations, rector. Congratulations, dear Juan Manuel,” Fernández Mañueco declared during the ceremony. “I congratulate you for having achieved the support of the university community at the polls, because it is the polls that have given you the possibility of being appointed as rector,” he emphasized. “If we continue working together, no one is going to stop us: all of us together,” the president urged those present. At the ceremony, Bertha Gutiérrez, president of the institution’s Research Ethics Committee, also took office as one of its vice-rectors.
The enthronement of the new rector has caused astonishment in the academic community, as highlighted Ismael Mingarro, dean of the Faculty of Biological Sciences of the University of Valencia. “The appointment of Professor Corchado is a very serious event for the Spanish university, not only with regard to our international image, but also, and I think it is more serious, because of the message we are sending to our students: that anything goes for promote yourself personally,” he points out. “We are devaluing the credibility of the university system. In my opinion, both the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE) and the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities should have audited the curriculum of the candidate for rector, since he is going to be the image of the University of Salamanca and, therefore, extension, of the rest of the Spanish public universities,” adds Mingarro.
In his speech, the new rector recalled his first steps in the institution as an 18-year-old student, his Erasmus scholarship and his return as a professor, a moment in which his voice broke, as he thanked his academic sponsors. . “I have come this far because I have always planned everything in advance,” he said. That is precisely one of the criticisms of his critics. The professor from Salamanca seemed to know that the rector Ricardo Rivero was going to resign by surprise on March 7, because on February 27 the dean of the Faculty of Economics, Jesús Galende, had called his professors to a meeting in which Corchado would explain to them “his future candidacy for rector,” as he wrote in an email message to which this newspaper has had access. In theory, the elections were two years away.
“I am convinced that I will be a rector capable of enjoying every day and making the university community enjoy,” proclaimed Corchado, who the day before presided over the inauguration of the Fraud Prevention Conferences of your institution. “The University of Salamanca deserves ambition and a future. We already have the tradition. “It is our time,” he continued. “University offers you a path that allows you to go far.”
Do you have more information about this case or other similar ones? You can write to us at [email protected]. Follow SUBJECT in Facebook, x, instagram or subscribe here to our bulletin.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
_
#Mañueco #enthrones #rector #thousands #selfcitations #solemn #ceremony #University #Salamanca