Madrid, the discordant note once again. The Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities has reached an agreement with 16 autonomous communities to create 4,480 positions for doctoral assistant professors in public universities, of which the Government of Spain will finance 2,705 positions and the CCAA, 1,775. The Government of the Community of Madrid has rejected the ‘María Goyri Program’, something that the person in charge of the portfolio, Diana Morant, has disgraced to President Isabel Díaz Ayuso, precisely at a time when the rectors of the six universities Public authorities in the region have made public the “critical situation” in which they find themselves due to lack of financing.
“I am writing to you to ask you to listen to the unanimous feelings of the rectors,” Morant begins in a letter sent this Monday to Ayuso, reminding him that “other regions have implemented multi-year financing models, reversing the cuts in the financial crisis and enhancing its capabilities”, while “the Community of Madrid continues to lag behind, compromising its academic and scientific future.”
“Clearly Madrid’s public universities are fulfilling their obligations, despite the obvious underfunding they suffer from their regional government. As you well know, the obligation to adequately carry out these functions by the Madrid public universities is that of their government, as it is their responsibility and competence obligation, and also their ethical responsibility as a public administration that must be at the service of all citizens,” Morant launches in his letter.
45 million just “to survive”
This occurs a few days after, in an unprecedented gesture, the rectors of the six public centers in the region published a joint text in which they ask the Community of Madrid 45 million euros more “just to survive”although they calculate the budget hole at more than 200 million.
Those responsible for the campuses demand that the president raise the annual nominal transfer to the universities by at least 4%, which is the amount that increases the general budget for Education, explain sources from the Conference of Rectors of Universities of Madrid (Cruma). . The regional government currently contemplates an increase of 0.47%, according to the draft budget published by the Community of Madrid.
Morant joins the voice of the rectors and adds a series of data that they have also shared with their team “so that they would be aware of the magnitude of the degree of inequality that the system suffers.” To begin with, it points out the loss of the financial capacity of the universities: “The current transfers of your Government between 2009 and 2024 have only increased by 5%, when the CPI registers a cumulative increase of 34.9%.” And these transfers per student are, he highlights, “21% lower than the average of all Spanish public universities, and do not even reach half the average value of those in the European Union.”
“Madrid public universities cannot be permanently on the limit,” Morant emphasizes in his letter. “Spain needs a strong Madrid public university system.”
A plan to add 1,000 teachers
Hence the “surprise” at the Ayuso Government’s rejection of the María Goyri Program, which would involve incorporating more than 1,000 young teachers and “an investment of more than 169 million euros in the Community of Madrid over the next six years.” . “A decision like this is neither understandable nor explainable” when it is most needed “to combat the precariousness and excessive temporality of teaching staff,” which in the case of the Community of Madrid “reaches 47.63%,” he highlights. .
This Tuesday the rectors Joaquín Goyache, of the Complutense; Ángel Arias, from Carlos III; Javier Ramos, from King Juan Carlos; Amaya Mendikoetxea, from the Autonomous Community; José Vicente Saz, from Alcalá; and Guillermo Cisneros, from the Polytechnic, will meet with President Ayuso to discuss the issue of lack of financing.
For some universities, the figure they currently collect is even lower in hard and cash euros: the Complutense, for example, received in 2009 a total of 418 million euros for Chapter IV; in 2024 there were 403 million. Fifteen million less, without counting the CPI. In that same period, the budgets of the Community of Madrid have gone from 17,689 million euros to 27,624 million, an increase of 56%.
The budgets per student that Madrid allocates to its campuses are the lowest in Spain, despite being the one with the most expensive public prices, along with Navarra.
#Diana #Morant #asks #Ayuso #listen #rectors #Madrid #continues #compromise #academic #future
