The public universities of Andalusia face a complicated end of the year due to the “non-compliance” and the financial “suffocation” to which the Government they chair has subjected them. Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla (PP), as reported this Wednesday by three unions, CCOO, UGT and CSIF, in concentrations called in all the provinces under the motto financial sufficiency now.
The rectors of the public universities of the Community “they completely share the demands of the union organizations“, as they told Public the sources consulted. Not only in Madrid, where Isabel Díaz Ayuso governs, but also in Andalusia, there are problems with the financing of public universities.
“The Andalusian Government, with its cuts and non-compliance with the agreements signed by itself, puts the maintenance of employment in all Public Universities at serious risk,” lament the union confederations, in a note sent to the media.
This week, the president of the Association of Andalusian Public Universities, Paco Olivawarned of the scenario of economic “uncertainty”, while, in parallel, there is “disproportionate growth” of private universities.
In December, Oliva explained, They still have to receive 25 million euros to comply with the 2024 financing model, and another 25 million to comply with the agreement with the union organizations and the Ministry for personnel expenses this year too. since may The rectors have been waiting for the fulfillment of these agreements.
“We have good news, apparently, the Ministry has already said that they are right now making the necessary arrangements with the Treasury to have that money (…) Now we have to see that the agreements are fulfilled in their entirety. “There are two games that should have arrived and have not yet arrived,” said Oliva.
The Andalusian Government has been defending that Andalusian universities are correctly financed, that “Andalusia is the autonomous community that dedicates the most funding to its universitiesaround 0.9% of GDP” and that “all of them will close the 2024 financial year with a surplus of 20 million euros except the University of Malaga (UMA), which is “in an exceptional situation.”
The Minister of University, Research and Innovation of the Government of Andalusia, José Carlos Gómez Villamandossaid he did not understand the protests because, he stated, “there is no debt.” “Debt is when you commit a budget and don’t give it, but here there is a committed budget of 1,685 million, which has been completely transferred to the universities within the deadlines in which it must be transferred. So at no time can we talk about debt,” he said in Córdoba, according to Europa Press.
“What is true,” he admitted, “is that, like every year, we always commit to doing additional contributionswhich we always do in the last quarter of the year and, on this occasion, we are going a little later.
The association of rectors is also concerned about the budgets of the Junta de Andalucía for 2025: “At least 87 million euros are missing“, Oliva said this week. “We are acting in a enormous uncertainty scenario“, considers the president of the rectors’ association.
Private universities
When Moreno Bonilla came to office, six years ago there were nine public universities in Andalusia—ten if UNIA is added—and one private university—Loyola—and, at the end of the process, which has begun in this legislature, Andalusia will have five: investment funds have thus found a paradise in the most populated Community.
“We are seeing a disproportionate growth of private universities, many of them do not meet even the slightest quality requirement,” Oliva stressed. This change in the university system is taking place “not only in Madrid, also in Andalusiawith the emergence of new private universities. I am not revealing anything new, we have said it many times from the Andalusian system,” he said.
Oliva claims universities as “research and transfer centers, where knowledge and critical citizenship are created” and not as mere “academies to teach.”
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