The PP government of Extremadura has already taken the first steps to open the first private university in the autonomous community. This is Uninde (International University for Development), which will teach studies in Social Sciences (especially innovation, development, digital marketing and business), Health (nursing, physiotherapy, psychology) and Engineering (computer science and video games) , in addition to providing for doctorates. Although it is established in Extremadura, the capital basically comes from Chile and a Peruvian businessman. In fact, it intends to bring students from there, especially for the online version of the studies, although it also foresees face-to-face and hybrid courses.
Last August, the Government of María Guardiola published the draft of the bill, to which the University of Extremadura, the only public one in the community, presented allegations. It has now been sent to the regional Economic and Social Council for evaluation. The Board intends to complete the process that involves, as it explains, the request for another opinion from the Council of State to, finally, take it to the Assembly for debate and vote, as it is a law. If all this processing is completed, the private study center could move forward thanks to the majority that PP and Vox have.
All this despite the fact that a technical report from the Ministry of Universities to which elDiario.es has had access – and which is a prior mandatory analysis and which is shared with all the autonomous communities at the University Policy Conference – has shown the gaps that it has. this initiative. “It does not prove financial solvency”, “the teaching staff is scarce” or “the research project does not meet the criteria required in the Royal Decree”, are some of the deficiencies that have been found by the ministry headed by Diana Morant. He also has problems with the location where he plans to start his journey: a commercial ground floor occupied by a bank and a store in the Las Vaguadas shopping center in Badajoz.
Behind the Uninde operation there are three companies. The main one is a company of Chilean origin that has 60% of the shares and is the owner of a private campus in the Latin American country, the Autonomous University of Chile. It is the same society that is promoting the Felipe II educational project of Madrid, a Center for Higher Studies currently attached to the Complutense University of Madrid, but which wants to become a private university, for which it needs the approval of the government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso.
The second pillar of Uninde is the businessman Alejandro Núñez Vizcarra, owner of Grupo Educativo Neumann, a Peruvian company with two universities in that country, who has 30% of the shares of the project that wants to land in Extremadura. Antonio Rubio, the Extremaduran businessman, is the other partner, who has 10% of the shares.
Shortcomings and vagueness
The technical study reveals deficiencies and vagueness in the project that was presented to the authorities and that was evaluated by the Ministry of Universities in January of this year. One of the most relevant is that “the documentation presented cannot be considered a financial guarantee and no documentary guarantee of the bank financing that was stated in the report that would be provided is presented either.” Furthermore, the 3,000 euros of share capital with which the company that Uninde will carry out begins “are considered insufficient for the start and as a guarantee for third parties.”
Regarding academic functioning, the report reflects that “it is not specified what continuing training they will provide or the academic practices”, “teacher training or internationalization is not specified”, the research section is “poorly defined”, “ “The teacher/group relationship is quite scarce and insufficient.”
Where will the campus be located? According to the documentation provided by the businessmen, the social sciences studies will be on the ground floor of a residential building, in a commercial premises – “currently occupied by a bank office”–. The second campus with the other degrees will be in the Las Vaguadas Shopping Center in Badajoz, a location where there will be a laboratory and clinical simulation center. For this health branch, Uninde has presented internship agreements with clinics of the Quirón Group.
Regarding the facilities presented by the university, “the information provided allows us to conclude that the spaces necessary to carry out the academic and research activity of the university are neither suitable nor guaranteed,” the letter says.
The first year they anticipate just over 300 students, which would supposedly grow to more than 2,000. Regarding tuition prices, the project has provided data that amounts to 5,000 euros per course and 7,500 euros per master’s degree. In the expenses and income that it foresees, Uninde is going to spend the same in the first year on teachers and staff as on marketing (just over 200,000 euros). He estimates that the year before starting his activity and the following three will need 5 million euros.
“In conclusion, and in view of the set of observations made, an unfavorable report is proposed for this file,” concluded the Ministry’s report.
The same result that the initiative obtained when it was presented to the autonomous communities and they voted for it: “unfavorable.” There were 10 abstentions, including that of Extremadura. Five autonomies voted against the implementation of Uninde after seeing the technical report: Andalusia, Cantabria, La Rioja, Navarra and the Balearic Islands.
The Assembly, with PP and Vox with a majority, will decide
Despite everything, the Government of Extremadura has endorsed the private initiative because it considers that the report from the Ministry of Universities, which cannot be rectified, does not prevent the project from continuing its processing. According to Antonio Rubio, appointed director of Uninde, this analysis document is “full of vague reflections and others that have nothing to do with the law.” However, the company decided to hire a law firm specialized in public affairs to respond with a report and include it in the file processed by the Board.
The allegations that the University of Extremadura has presented to the draft of the bill have not stopped the procedure either. The rector, Pedro Salguero, has been warning that in the autonomous community there are not so many students for there to be more than one center of higher education and, in addition, he has considered that the Uninde project published by the Board is generic, only one “declaration of intent” that does not offer information about the degrees that are going to be taught.
In this sense, Rubio has assured that the company has the memory with the face-to-face academic offer, but it has not yet been submitted to the National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation (Aneca) for the officialization of the degrees, which will not include Medicine. .
Uninde’s initial plans were to begin the activity “in full” in the 2025-2026 academic year, but given the deadlines “we can also begin with the calendar year in 2026 with management training,” Rubio told elDiario.es. Although apart from the administrative procedures, another of the pending issues of this project is that it does not yet have a campus in Badajoz and that it will be installed in commercial basements: “We are being reserved to avoid speculation, but we are looking at different infrastructures and “We have clear alternatives for provisional locations,” said the director of Uninde, who insisted that, once the implementation of the private university is approved, the law “gives us five years to do everything we say we are going to do.” do”.
Whether or not the first private university in Extremadura is launched will be in the hands of the Assembly, regardless of the Ministry’s report and what the Economic and Social Council and the Council of State now say. Regardless of whether they are unfavorable opinions, the Extremadura Government will send it to the Assembly, as Uninde claims, so that “the project as a whole and with all the mandatory reports can be assessed,” the Ministry of Education has explained. For its part, the PSOE has warned that it will not approve “any private university project without favorable reports from the Council of State, the Ministry itself and the University of Extremadura, especially our university.”
However, the Extremaduran Government has recalled that the autonomous Executive of the PSOE processed two private initiatives with unfavorable reports from the Ministry in 2017 and 2018, although the truth is that, in these cases, the negative reports from the Council of State were sufficient for it not to be will reach the regional Parliament.
But Uninde is not the only private university initiative interested in establishing itself in Extremadura, which could go from being a wasteland for these businesses, where all the attempts presented so far have failed, to having four in the coming years. Three other projects are currently being processed.
According to the Ministry of Education, the so-called Open University of Extremadura, promoted by Planeta de Agostini Training and Universities, will be the next to receive the report from the Ministry. Also waiting for it, although they requested it shortly before the summer, are the European University of Extremadura – linked to the European University of Madrid – and the CEU Núñez de Balboa, linked to the Center for University Studies founded by the Spanish Association of Propagandists.
The Government of Extremadura has assured that it will support these projects that “complement” the training offer of the University of Extremadura, which is “a priority”, because they give “options to stay in the region to students who do not get a place at our university.” public.”
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