The spokesperson for Culture and Universities of the Socialist Parliamentary Group in the Parliament of the Canary Islands, Yaiza López Landi, has denounced "the imbalance" that the increase in new degrees in private universities is generating with the public universities of the Canary Islands.
López Landi has recalled that the consideration of the Decree promoted by the Ministry of Universities of the Canary Islands Government to update the regulations that govern the implementation of official university degrees in the Canary Islands university system "has not yet been submitted to the citizen participation process".
The socialist deputy has criticized that the autonomous Executive continues authorizing new degrees case by case without approving the plan that the Organic Law of the University System (LOCU) requires to plan the autonomous map of degrees, while the public university system in the islands continues without planning and without an autonomous map of degrees, the private ones continue to grow.
“First they authorize and plan afterwards, leaving public universities without a clear framework for growth. The Law obliges to plan before authorizing, not afterwards”, he/she/it stresses.
For López Landi, the problem is not in how many degrees are authorized, but "that they are being authorized without a plan". “Canarias is deciding its university model without public planning. Here it is being done just the opposite of what the law requires: first they authorize and then they plan, and the Law obliges to plan before authorizing, not after”
Furthermore, he/she has criticized that there is no record of "an updated autonomous map of qualifications and that, even so, qualifications continue to be approved". “It is not a recommendation, but rather it is a legal obligation that the Government of the Canary Islands is ignoring”.
“The Government itself recognizes that it is working on a Decree of ordination, which has not yet been processed as a project. We have requested the documentation to know what it includes, but in the meantime, they continue to authorize. If the decree is not yet approved, by what criterion are these decisions being made?”, he added.
In his/her/their opinion, this is the model that the Government of the Canary Islands has been developing for three years: “Without planning, letting the university system configure itself, by demands and order of arrival. This Government is promoting a model that benefits private universities and generates great inequalities in access to higher education in the Canary Islands.
Furthermore, he has denounced that they are not ordering the system because they are “leaving it in the hands of whoever arrives first. Private universities are part of the system, but it is the Government that has the obligation to plan it and guarantee balance”.
“It is not a debate against private university, it is a debate about a Government that delays planning the university system, leading public universities to a progressive weakening,” he/she/it has stressed.
