Diana Morant asks Ayuso by letter to access State aid for public universities

Specifically, the governments of Andalusia, Aragon, Asturias, the Canary Islands, Cantabria, Castilla-La Mancha, Catalonia, the Valencian Community, Extremadura, Galicia, the Balearic Islands, La Rioja, Navarra and the Region of Murcia have already signed the agreement for the implementation implementation of this program for the incorporation of teaching and research talent in Spanish public universities.

In the letter, to which Europa Press has had access, Morant points out that at this moment it is “when public universities need it most to face the challenge of combating the precariousness and excessive temporality of teaching staff that in the case of the Community of Madrid reaches 47.63%, as well as enabling its rejuvenation and modernization, to thereby guarantee its ability to develop quality teaching and research.”

«A decision like this is neither understandable nor explainable, since it seriously harms Madrid’s public universities by losing the possibility of incorporating more than 1,000 young and well-trained teachers. This surprise is even greater, when at this moment there is an agreement with all the autonomous communities except yours,” Morant reproaches the Madrid president.

The person in charge of Universities “strongly” asks Ayuso to “rectify and thereby join the path of collaboration and understanding in defense of public universities” that the Government has reached with the rest of the autonomous communities. By rejecting this agreement, Morant assures that the Community of Madrid “is preventing the Government of Spain from investing more than 169 million euros” in the region over the next six years.

5 percent

At this point, the minister has detailed that the current transfers from the Government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso to finance the public universities of her community in the fifteen years between 2009 and 2024, “have only increased by 5%, when the CPI registers a cumulative increase of 34.9%”: “The loss of financial capacity of these universities is, therefore, manifest and indisputable.”

Likewise, it states that these transfers per student “are 21% lower than the average of all Spanish public universities, and do not even reach half of the average value of Public Universities in the European Union.”

«Madrid universities, faced with this situation, are working with the extra effort of their management teams and, above all, their teaching staff and workers, trying to maintain the commitment of these institutions to the development of quality teaching and excellent research. But Madrid’s public universities cannot be permanently on the limit,” criticizes Morant.

Rejuvenate templates

The Minister of Universities has highlighted that the Government is working with communities and public universities “to rejuvenate staff and definitively put an end to a situation of unacceptable precariousness in our universities, a consequence of a period marked by cuts.”

Morant also recalled that “the objective of this program is to finance more than 5,600 positions for doctoral assistant professors in public universities throughout Spain.” In this sense, the commitment of the Government of Spain to the ‘María Goyri Program’ means financing 3,400 doctor assistant teaching positions throughout the country for six years, which will mean a global cost of more than 900 million euros on the part of the Executive. .

In addition, this program involves the mobilization of another 2,236 places that will be paid for by the autonomous communities, which have the powers in this matter.

Likewise, the minister has pointed out that “it is the first time that a Spanish Government takes direct responsibility for the salaries of university professors and researchers, financing a competence that is transferred to the autonomous communities.”