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June/July 2007 News
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Democracy, Decentralization Arrive on CampusConcern of central government and regions now turns to quality assurance and finances 
REUTERS/Marcelo del Pozo
Heads of state from Latin America, Spain and
Portugal gather at the October 2005 Ibero-American Summit at the University of Salamanca, founded in 1218 by King Alfonso IX of Leon. The current organization of the Spanish state is based on the Constitution of 1978 that established the country as a parliamentary monarchy. Its territory is politically and administratively divided into municipalities, provinces and Autonomous Communities. The latter are the equivalent of states or provinces in a federal system. Democracy returned to Spain with the first democratic elections after General Francisco Franco’s dictatorship. In 1977, a Parliament was elected, 41 years after the last elections. With this election began the period known as the Transition, the highlight of which was the writing of a new Constitution, passed in 1978. That was the starting point for the current democratic period. This Constitution permitted the creation of Autonomous Communities as well as the devolution and decentralization of certain areas of government, while others remain under the federal (known in Spain as the State or central) government. In the case of higher education, the transfer of responsibilities took place between 1985 and 1996. The Spanish university system is made up of 73 institutions, of which 50 are public, 16 are private, and seven are run by the Catholic Church. A smaller sector in post-secondary education includes professional and technical schools as well as arts, language and sports institutions. Ninety per cent of undergraduate students and 95 per cent of those doing doctoral studies enrol in public institutions, mostly universities, which also play a major role in the field of research as they employ 40 per cent of all researchers in the country. University Autonomy vs. Madrid Since 1983, when the Law for University Reform was passed, Spanish universities have undergone very important changes affecting their governance, as well as their coordination and organization as part of a post-secondary system. Further reforms were undertaken in 2001 and 2007, which changed the functions and jurisdictions of the main actors in university politics, while maintaining the importance of the triad of central government, Autonomous Communities and universities. The central government, through its Ministry of Education and Science, is responsible for formulating general guidelines for university policy. The ministry plays several key roles, including: setting university entry requirements; developing and managing the system for awarding scholarships and grants; designing and managing innovation and quality policy; and the validation of degrees. Two public universities also fall directly The Autonomous Communities’ jurisdiction covers the following functions: Starting with the law of 1983, attempts were made to modernize university administration, open it up to society and democratize it. The downside has been that the new model decreases the flexibility and agility of university decision-making. The quality assurance system has a national agency at its core in charge of evaluation, certification and accreditation, the National Agency for Quality Evaluation and Accreditation (ANECA). There are eight regional agencies that work alongside ANECA, each of which has some activities in common, including assessment. Creation of the European Higher Education Area and the subsequent reform of the Spanish university system have delayed implementation of accreditation models because reform of the current degree system, and that of the traditional credit system, was considered more urgent. Further work is necessary to tighten coordination among agencies and to establish shared basic criteria. Most Financing is Local There are as many models of financing as there are Autonomous Communities. They are as diverse as the possibilities for combining different criteria for the allocation of resources and mechanisms for their distribution. The second major source of income – tuition fees and course fees – is set by the administration, making it illegal for universities to go over the upper limits that have been set. Today, they are far below the real costs of educating students, which makes them similar to those of the surrounding European area. Since the adoption of the 1978 constitution, Spain has been quite successful in the democratization and decentralization of its post-secondary education system. One of its biggest challenges now is to improve co-ordination, co-operation and quality control. This will help ensure a greater diversity of
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Francisco Michavila is Professor of Applied Mathematics and Director,
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