The public universities of Madrid revolt in the face of Ayuso’s attacks and urge him to resolve his “underfinancing”

The Madrid university community has said enough. After the harsh criticism leveled by Isabel Diaz Ayuso in which he accused the left of using the public university to “give away titles like churros” and after years of budgetary abuse, the six rectors (Complutense, Autonomous, Polytechnic, Alcalá, King Juan Carlos and Carlos III) have sent a harsh letter to the regional president.

In it, they show their “deep concern” by the draft Budget of the regional Government for 2025 and in the face of “a situation in which the commitment and quality of its public service is questioned, almost daily, despite the fact that the facts and national and international recognition demonstrate the contrary”. This is a statement that has been agreed upon and is made public just five days before the meeting that Ayuso will hold with them and a week before the latest budget debatewhich can be modified.

In the aforementioned letter they also communicate that they have unanimously approved in the extraordinary councils held this Thursday in each center to face the “real decrease” in their financing and guarantee the quality of the essential public service they provide to society.

This is how they express it after celebrating their respective extraordinary councils about the draft regional budgets approved on October 30, which “does not contemplate the necessary transfers to face the impact of inflation on supplies, fully cover the salary increase agreed by the central Government, or finance the demands of the new Universities Law“, they indicate in the letter. “Nor does it include sufficient resources to guarantee the essential maintenance of the buildings, essential for their operation and safety,” they argue.

If the Assembly ratifies it in the terms presented, “the already critical economic situation” of the universities will worsen after years of “accumulated underfinancing”, since the allocation for subsidies “ignores the arguments” raised by the universities and “masks a real decline” in financing.

Let us remember that this Monday the rector of the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), Joaquin Goyachealso responded to Ayuso’s words with an open letter to the president to express his “firm disagreement” with her statements about this university in the Madrid Assembly on the 14th and urges her to “reconsider them” and to “publicly recognize the value and contribution” of this educational center.