Amid protests, calling it a “cacicada” of the Government because they did not want to make an ad hoc agreement that no one else has, the Community of Madrid has finally joined the María Goyri program, through which the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities will co-finance the incorporation of a thousand doctoral assistant professors to the universities of the region.
The Executive of Isabel Díaz Ayuso was the only one among 17 that had distanced itself from the agreement, intended to help rectorates throughout the country to comply with the (not so) new university law by expanding their staff. First he said no, that the agreement was a trap because the ministry only finances the first contract (six years) and then each regional government must assume those payrolls. What the regional Executive has never alluded to is that the ministry has no obligation to finance these incorporations – the powers lie with the autonomous communities – and in fact it will be the first time it has done so. The agreement contemplates that the ministry invests 169 million euros in six years (28 per course), while Madrid will invest 17.5 for the first six years and then will have to add the Universities part.
But Madrid doesn’t like being forced to spend. Even so, when two weeks ago the six rectors of public universities made a joint public statement denouncing the “critical situation” that prevents them from functioning normally, the discourse changed. The Community said “yes” with conditions. And they proposed an alternative to the ministry led by Diana Morant. Universities rejected it. “There is a text that the other communities have signed, a different one will not be made for Madrid,” sources from the ministry came to explain. That’s where the Government stood and Madrid had to go through that hoop. This Wednesday they ended up signing. The universities of the region will have 1,091 new doctoral assistant professors, the figure that begins the academic career.
At the press conference after the Government Council this Wednesday, the spokesperson for the regional Executive, Miguel Ángel García, criticized the “imposition” of the central Government and drew on the PP’s usual repertoire. “The Government is very attentive when it comes to negotiating with the independentists and the heirs of ETA, but it does not listen to reason and is not capable of negotiating a single point” of an agreement that involves several administrations, he lamented. Asked why it has changed so that the Community adheres to a text that it had rejected, he explained that it was a matter of “choosing between the bad and the worst. We have been left with the bad. The agreement is insufficient, it does not solve any problem generated by the law itself [de Universidades] and it still does not structurally finance the needs of Madrid universities and the entire country,” he insisted, ignoring the fact that the powers are autonomous. “I would have to fully finance the cost of applying the law, not just for six years,” he demanded.
Previously, last Tuesday, the Minister of Education of Madrid, Emilio Viciana, had labeled the Pedro Sánchez Government’s program as a “cacicada”. “There has been no possibility of negotiating,” he lamented. “We continue to denounce the problems that we already saw in the agreement, for example that it imposes the figure of the doctoral assistant professor, a figure that does not solve the problem for many public universities in Madrid and discriminates against the figure of the associate professor, with the consequent detriment of quality. university.”
They have been hectic weeks at Madrid universities. The Ayuso Government is in a kind of open war against the centers, which it considers “taken over by the left”, especially the Complutense of Madrid (the same one that made the president an illustrious student two years ago) and froze their funds in the draft budget for 2025. The rectors, who until now had opted for a low profile, revolted in public and ended up starting a 4% increase, the minimum essential to continue functioning. They estimate that they would really need 200 million between the six of them.
Because the Community of Madrid today transfers the same money to its public universities as in 2009 while the cost of living has risen 35.9%, according to the INE. This non-evolution means, de facto, that today less is invested in public higher education than 15 years ago.
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