“It is unfeasible to start in September and we need more time,” says the professor about the new entrance exam that the Government is preparing
The rector of the University of Valencia, Mavi Mestre, warns that there is a lot of discontent on campus with the new Selectivity that the Government is preparing. This Psychology professor also maintains that the Organic Law of the University System (Losu) approved in March is insecure and creates problems that did not exist before. Hostess of the V International Meeting of Rectors Universiaorganized by Santander, and candidate to preside over the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (Crue), makes self-criticism.
- The fifty Spanish public universities ask to delay the new Selectividad for one year. Do you agree?
- There is a lot of discontent in the universities because it is not feasible to start in September and we need more time. The Vice Chancellors for Students see that not enough work has been done. It supposes a very important change, where the students risk their future, in which it is not necessary to rush. Let’s do it well, being sure that an objective evaluation will be carried out and that there will be no bias. High school teachers cannot rest easy if they themselves do not know the format: there can be a situation where they feel insecure and transmit that insecurity to the students.
- Has the university counted on the new design?
- No, I am the president of a Crue Sectorial [la de Profesorado] and I have not had information on how it was being carried out.
Losu is insecure and creates problems that we didn’t have before.”
- How about the new Losu?
- It was a long-awaited law, but it does not satisfy the universities. Most rectors don’t like it; I haven’t talked to anyone who completely likes it. The Losu is insufficient and insecure, it is not going to solve the problems of the universities and it is going to generate problems that we did not have before. It is going to have a negative impact on the staff of public universities, because, by proposing that temporary professors become indefinite, young people are going to have a more difficult time getting hired.
- Do you agree that the requirement to be a professor has been removed in order to be rector?
- For me it is not the most worrying thing about Losu, although I think it is good that a rector or rector have reached the end of their academic career.
- What is the most worrying?
- The financing. A law must be accompanied by an economic report, and it has not been done in this case. There is the idea of reaching 1% of GDP, but it has not been budgeted for. Without funding, the law cannot be applied. And they could have left us more autonomy in managing governance and organizing departments.
The Conference of Rectors has been missing for months
- The Ministry is preparing a new royal decree that requires reducing the number of departments in order to save.
- The functioning of the departments is going to be a problem. This rule attacks university autonomy. We have regulated ourselves by the statutes: some universities must have a minimum of 18 full-time professors and others bet on smaller or larger departments and set another limit and nothing happens.
- There are also teachers complaining that fields of knowledge are mixed up that don’t have much to do with each other.
- They mix, for example, surgery with podiatry, or psychology with speech therapy. There are areas of knowledge that are going to be used for the list of jobs and that must be fine-tuned a little better because the templates will respond to those areas of knowledge. It’s a problem.
- The Government is also preparing a new order that reduces Mathematics or Language in the training of future teachers.
- The faculties of Teaching have already manifested totally against it. Training cannot be reduced. We need very well-prepared teachers to educate in such an important stage of life.
- What role has the Crue played in all these regulatory changes?
- The Losu is a law that Crue should have been in. And there I make a criticism: it has not been sufficiently clear, vindictive and belligerent to defend a law that responds to the model of university that we want. We have spent a few months in which Crue has been missing, especially the Presidency and the Permanent Board, in a process where such important things have happened, such as the approval of a Law on Universities, the university entrance exam or student internships, which are fundamental and that the new legislation is going to hinder.
- Why has she been missing?
- I would like to know. We may have more strength than we have shown. We must bet on a Crue with more capacity to make decisions and more transparent.
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