The president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has offered the rectors to improve the financing of public universities by 3.8% for the coming year. This figure, advanced by The Country and confirmed by this newspaper, it remains slightly below the 4% that the six public leaders had calculated as the minimum necessary to survive one more academic year.
Ayuso’s offer means increasing financing by 42 million euros, as confirmed shortly after by the Community Education Department. This increase will be made by “linking part of the financing to the achievement of objectives,” according to the regional government. “This will be reflected in the regional accounts project for 2025, which is already being processed in the Madrid Assembly for approval before the end of the year,” adds the Ministry.
The rectors asked for a little more: 45 million euros was the essential minimum, although they actually calculated that they would need about 200 million to have healthy accounts. However, sources from the Conference of Rectors of Madrid Universities (Cruma) explain to this newspaper that that 4% – the same as the increase in the general budget for Education in Madrid, according to the draft presented by the regional Executive – was the minimum. to continue operating.
The six public universities in Madrid today receive just 5% more funds than 15 years ago, in 2009, while the CPI has risen nearly 35%, according to the INE. This represents a de facto loss of funding for the campuses, which until now had survived thanks to extraordinary amounts won in the courts from the Community of Madrid, but which are now running out.
In addition to the increase, the regional government announces that “it has been agreed to start work to develop a stable financing model for Madrid’s public universities”, another request that the rectors brought to the meeting with Ayuso.
Furthermore, the note closes, “the contributions for 2025 will contain an increase in the amount for investments and maintenance of infrastructure and university buildings until reaching 20 million euros”, another demand of the universities. “Thus, the Ministry is already working together with university officials on an infrastructure plan to define the state and needs of each institution.”
Second gesture in one day
It is the second gesture that the president has made with the public universities this Tuesday, after last week the six raised a joint protest against the “critical” situation of their accounts. Minutes before meeting with the rectors this afternoon, the Ministry of Education announced its intention to join the María Goyri program of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, through which the central Government will co-finance the hiring of university professors half with the communities.
Madrid had been the only one to reject the agreement under the argument that the program entailed a present and future cost (it will have to cover the hiring in six years, when the ministry withdraws), which cost it a written reproach. from Minister Diana Morant. This Tuesday the regional government sent an information note explaining that it is prepared to sign the agreement, although conditional.
The Ministry criticizes its rigidity because it only includes one job position (doctoral assistant professor, the gateway to an academic career) and announces that it will propose an “alternative”, which the ministry has already announced that it will reject because it does not plan to touch the agreement. “It is ironic that the defender of equality between Spaniards wants an ad hoc version of the agreement for Madrid,” ministry sources explain. “What you have to do is sign, not dizzy. If he wants to rectify it, he should do it truly and firmly,” Morant improvised a response during the press conference of the Council of Ministers, where he was surprised by the news live.
#Ayuso #grants #universities #raise #minimum #survival #rate #requested #rectors
