The Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities, Diana Morant, has called on the autonomous communities to invest the historical funding they are receiving from the Government of Spain in public universities. “We run the risk that inequality, in the form of under-funding, undermines meritocracy,” he said.
The minister has defended the need to bet on Spanish public universities in the inauguration of the course “Entrepreneurship and employability”, organized by the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE), within the framework of the summer courses of the Menéndez Pelayo International University (UIMP), in Santander.
Morant pointed out that “the university is the tool of democratic society to guarantee equal opportunities and give real meaning to the word merit.”
As he explained, “in conditions of financial asphyxiation, universities will hardly be able to satisfactorily fulfill their increasingly demanding missions of teaching, research and knowledge transfer.” "We must share the goal that no one should be left without a career, because they cannot afford it," he insisted.
In addition, the minister has highlighted the transforming role of the university: “It does not only train professionals, it forms citizens capable of innovating and transforming society”, and it has underlined its contribution to employability. “Every young person who achieves a decent job, or who implements an innovative project, brings economic growth, social cohesion and confidence in the future, democratic confidence,” he said. “Talking about employability is talking about a country vision for knowledge,” he added.
Commitment of the Government of Spain to the Spanish university system
For all these reasons, the minister has insisted on the commitment of the Government of Spain to the Spanish university system. For example, as he has detailed, a “historical maximum” has been reached in university scholarships and pioneering formulas have been created to end the precariousness of young teachers such as the María Goyri program.
In this regard, the minister recalled that, for the first time since the competences in university financing are transferred to the autonomous communities, the Government of Spain is directly responsible for financing part of the salary of university professors.
Morant also stressed that research funding has been strengthened and added that this momentum is part of the largest investment in science and R+D+I in the history of Spain.
New Statute for the UIMP
Subsequently, Minister Diana Morant participated in the institutional event to close the summer courses of the UIMP. The minister has referred to them as “a bridge between disciplines, ideologies and generations” and has claimed their value as “resistance and refuge for democracies”.
The minister highlighted the commitment of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities to the UIMP, one of the two universities attached to the Government of Spain, in addition to the National University of Distance Education (UNED) to continue moving forward. As the minister has said, the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities is already working on a new Statute for the UIMP in order to “modernize its management and enhance its international projection with the Government of Spain”.
With regard to its financing, the Ministry’s planned contribution to the UIMP this 2025 represents 31.9% more than that received in 2017 by the Government of Spain.
The minister defended that, in the face of hoaxes and negationism, “it is community, science and public policy that advances us together and saves us when they are badly given.” And he has put as an example of this the management of the pandemic, the Dana de Valencia and the great fires. “Therefore, when the scientific community warns us that the climate emergency is already here and that Spain is one of the places with the greatest impact, we cannot look the other way,” he insisted.
“Climate change and its negationism kill. And we must stand up to it from spaces like this, defending scientific evidence and truth. Defending dialogue, in the face of sterile confrontation,” said Morant.
The minister has called for a rapid response “with consensus based on science and involving civil society, such as the State Pact against the Climate Emergency that the Government of Spain has presented this week”.
“From the government, we will continue to prioritize our universities. Because the future of our country depends on its success,” concluded Morant.