Incorporate the short-term coursesend the temporality of teachers, promoting equality and fighting harassment, legalizing the right to academic strike for students (it is not called a strike because they are not workers) and remodeling the election for rector are some of the main novelties included in the organic law of the university system (Losu). At the moment, it is only a preliminary project, which will be included shortly in the agenda of the Council of Ministers. Then it will go to Congress and the Senate for final approval after discussion with the rest of the political forces. Once it comes into force, something that will happen in the first half of 2023, the text will give a period of time to the faculties (both public and private) to adopt it to their statutes. These are the general lines of the draft, presented this morning by the Minister of Universities, Joan Subirats.
The Losu will incorporate a new figure that is being experimented with in the main European faculties: microforming. These are short-term courses (between 4 and 30 credits) that can be accessed by students who have a previous degree or people who have accredited professional experience. Everything will depend on the type of subjects taught and the rules set by universities, entities with autonomy. Given their complexity and novelty, the short-term courses – also incorporated this year in the new Vocational Training Law – will not be available once the law comes into force, but there will be a transition period so that universities can incorporate them.
lifelong training
Subirats has stressed that microtraining is linked to the philosophy of training throughout life. “The title of the degree It can’t be the end of college life. We need a more flexible university in which we can find processes for updating careers”, concluded the minister after insisting that university students should start Overcome the idea that once they get their degree, they will dedicate their whole lives professionally to that sector.
end the temporality
The law -which incorporates the figure of the substitute teacher- will try to put an end to the temporary nature of the teaching staff since there will only be one 20% maximum of temporary contracts compared to the current 40%. The teaching career will have several steps. Once the thesis is completed, the first will be the incorporation, which will entail a PhD contract of four years. During the following six years, the figure of assistant doctor can be accessed through a postdoctoral contract. In other words, the stabilization of teachers will come after a period of ten years. In the case of doctoral assistants, in the first year of the contract they must attend a pedagogy course. In this way, universities will no longer be the only educational sector where teacher training is not required for teachers to exercise their profession. The content and duration of the new course is still to be determined although it will be carried out in balance with the three competent authorities on campus: ministry, autonomous communities and universities. The objective of curbing the temporary nature of teachers is to reduce the average age of permanent teachers given that the aging of the workforce (there are 120,000 teachers in the 50 public universities) is a serious problem in the classroom. In fact, more than half (52%) will retire in the next eight years. The norm specifies the figure of the distinguished professor, who will be able to work in the faculty without accreditation and with the contractual duration decreed by the university, compared to visiting professors, whose contracts will be -at most- two years. All teaching positions (less associated, distinguished and visiting) will be held after a public contest. Associate professors (those who work at the university for a maximum of 120 hours a year) who do more hours than the stipulated hours may have a three-year contract for those same hours.
The Losu will allow the walkways between the permanent professors and civil servant professors. You will have to be a civil servant to aspire to the position of rector. It will last six years (not one more) and will not be renewable. Contrary to what was specified in the draft prepared by the department of former Minister Manuel Castells (who retired from office last December for health reasons), the current text does not incorporate all the teaching and research requirements that a professor must have to access the position of rector. According to the new wording, it will be the powers that determine it. The future law wants fight also against historical inbreeding of the Spanish university, so that all competitions for places will be published beforehand in a registry and the commissions will have a majority of members from outside the university.
The future law will establish by law the right to academic unemployment of students, a completely normalized practice in university life (technically it is not called a strike because they are not workers) but that some faculties did not expressly collect. “It is a right and a weapon of the students & rdquor ;, Subirats stressed. In any case, if you stop them coincide with exams, those who want to continue with their teaching activity will be able to do so (obviously) and those who go on strike “will assume the consequences”. Another right of university students will be the evaluation of the quality of teaching, a practice that is usually carried out but that remains a simple wet paper. The objective is that the opinion of the students has much more strength, enough to be taken into account when granting financial incentives to teachers for their teaching excellence. Another of the rights of the students will be their binding participation in the study plans and teaching guides, something that is already done but is reinforced in the new norm.
It will continue as before, with the government council, the student council and the social council. What changes is that in the faculty there will be a minimum of 25% representation of the students (until now it was not specified).
Equality and fight against harassment
Faculties must have equality plans (equality units will be mandatory), protocols against harassment and Gender approach. There will be positive discrimination actions when the department has a minority (either men or women).