The president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, is trying to put out the fire in the public university at the expense of (lack of) public financing. After the dismissal of the Minister of Education, Emilio Viciana, due to his inability to reach an agreement or at least bring closer positions with the rectors regarding a future law on Madrid universities, Ayuso is trying to get back on track and negotiate with the leaders an increase in the funds that the Community of Madrid transfers to public campuses, as confirmed by various sources to elDiario.es. Madrid is the region that finances its campuses the worst in all of Spain, despite being the richest.
The president will appear next Thursday, March 5, at the Madrid Assembly to give explanations about the change in the Ministry, which has gone from the technical profile of Viciana to a more political one with Mercedes Zarzalejos. The fall of the already former councilor was followed by the dismissal of two general directors and three deputies and the resignation of Ayuso’s guru, Antonio Castillo Algarra, a playwright who pulled the strings of Madrid education from his office at the Spanish Ballet of the Community, unleashing out of nowhere the biggest internal crisis that Ayuso has seen in his governments since he took office in 2019. With that dismissal – although the dismissed man assures that he has left motu proprio– Ayuso’s university bill returned to square one.
Several sources suggest that the president will try on Thursday to divert attention from the crisis in Education by announcing an agreement with the rectors to improve the financing of the universities and finally create a multi-year plan (Madrid is one of the few regions that does not have one, which prevents the rectorates from planning in the medium and long term) or, if she cannot close the agreement before, at least communicate her intention to improve current transfers to the centers, drowned at this moment.
A 30% increase?
Sources familiar with the negotiations affirm that the figure offered by the regional government is around 1.6 billion euros annually for the six public universities within five years. If this data is confirmed, it would represent an increase of 29% on the 1,239 million euros that the Community will allocate to its campuses this year. Despite this hypothetical increase, the amount for universities would go from 0.4% of the current GDP to 0.5% (and that with the current GDP, without taking into account the increase that there will be in five years’ time and that will make the relative increase even smaller), a figure that is still half of the 1% provided for by the Organic Law of the University System (LOSU).
Even so, for the rectors that figure could be acceptable, as stated by the head of the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) and president of the Conference of Rectors of the Public Universities of Madrid (Cruma), Amaya Mendikoetxea, in a recent interview with Europa Press: “1.7 billion, which is what the Andalusian system has [equiparable en tamaño al madrileño]”I think it would be a good reference,” the president explained ten days ago.
The regional government will meet with the rectors of public centers next Monday the 2nd to try to reach an agreement on financing, since the stagnation in the negotiation of the law has led the Ministry of Education to try to close this crisis outside of the processing of the norm, whose approval is now up in the air.
In this meeting, it is expected that, in addition to the new Minister of Education, the Minister of the Presidency, Miguel Ángel García Martín, will participate, who mediated between the dismissed Viciana and the rectors and has acquired more weight in the negotiations. Who will not be there is the person in charge of Economy and Finance, Rocío Albert López-Ibor, the person in charge of releasing the funds, who has been reluctant and is also a person close to private universities, according to what was published The Country.
After this meeting on Tuesday the 3rd, the rectors will meet with representatives of the platforms in defense of the public university, who will tell them that anything less than reaching or approaching 1% of the GDP will be insufficient. “No long-term agreement or for amounts that do not approach 1% of GDP will allow the support and modernization of public universities, thus favoring the transfer of students to private universities. The Platforms already announced in January that they would continue their mobilizations if sufficient and stable financing is not met – without objectives – as requested by the LOSU,” explain sources from these groups.
Although the Community of Madrid does not openly admit it, the level and extent of the protests organized by the platforms, which paralyzed the university with the strike on November 26 and 27, influenced Viciana’s dismissal.
Three legs for financing
The objective of the regional government, which the rectors do not reject, is to establish financing with three axes: a basic item for the daily operation of the centers, a second for specific objectives to be met (each campus has its own) and a third that addresses the specificities of each center (for example, the University of Alcalá has a campus that is partly a World Heritage Site).
For Madrid universities, an improvement in their conditions is beginning to be urgent. The Complutense has had to request a loan of 34.5 million euros from the Community of Madrid (its theoretical financier) to balance the accounts, which has forced it to approve an Economic Financial Plan with a cut of 33 million euros; The Rey Juan Carlos (URJC) has closed the 2025 financial year with a deficit of 76 million, accounts that show why it is the worst funded university in Spain.
As a whole, the regional government transfers less money to its universities today than in 2009 and Madrid is the only region with a university system in deficit and its non-financial expenses are higher than income, according to 2023 data.
The lack of financing that universities have suffered in recent years has also caused investment needs to multiply, explained Rector Mendikoetxea: “We have stopped investing a lot of money in our infrastructure and now we should be able to undertake important reforms,” she told Europa Press.
Source: www.eldiario.es
