Pedro Sánchez announces a royal decree setting out new requirements to ensure the quality of university degrees

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, has announced that the Government is to begin the process of drafting a new royal decree, in collaboration with the CRUE (Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities) and students, which "will set out new requirements to ensure that, behind every degree programme, there is high-quality university education".

He made this statement following his visit to the Institute of Mathematical Sciences (ICMAT), in Madrid, alongside the Minister for Science, Innovation and Universities, Diana Morant, where Pedro Sánchez criticised the fact that, in recent times, "universities offering programmes of questionable quality have emerged, taking advantage of this situation to make a profit", and he insisted that "a university cannot be a fly-by-night operation or a franchise that churns out degrees". He therefore pointed out that the Government had already tightened the requirements for establishing and recognising new universities last year and is now set to introduce further measures through this royal decree.

"Firstly," he explained, "the Government will propose tightening the requirements for teaching staff on each university degree programme, so that '50% of lecturers must hold a PhD and 40% must be on full-time contracts". "In doing so, we are not only improving the quality of education, but also combating precarious working conditions", he emphasised. And, secondly, "we will insist on face-to-face contact where necessary, particularly in sectors such as healthcare. In this way, we will prevent certain private universities from taking advantage of the growing demand for these degree programmes and the lack of sufficient places at public universities to massively expand their online provision, without guaranteeing standards of quality and face-to-face teaching".

The President of the Government of Spain, during his tour of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, accompanied by the director of the center, the Minister for Science, Innovation and Universities, the President of the CSIC and the Rector of the UAM | Pool Moncloa / Sandra Armada

Pedro Sánchez called for "a strong university system: one capable of nurturing talent, supporting research and blazing trails for others to follow", but he warned that "these are not good times for the public university system". He pointed out that, over the last decade, the number of students enrolled in public universities has risen by just 3%, whilst in private universities the figure has risen by 128%. This is also the case for master's degree programmes, where private universities have tripled their student numbers and now have more students than public universities.

Reasons why private universities are gaining ground on public ones

In his view, there are three main reasons why private universities are gaining so much ground on public ones. The first is "the underfunding of many public universities" as a result of "political decisions" taken by the regional governments of certain communities, such as Madrid or Castile and León. "It is the planned obsolescence of public services: first they fall into disrepair; then the provision of these services is scaled back; and finally, the private sector is presented as the only alternative", he said. "A strategy," he added, "that we are very familiar with, because we see it in other pillars of the welfare state, such as the public health service".

In response to this, Pedro Sánchez emphasised that direct state funding for universities has increased by 78% since 2018; public universities receive over 600 million euros for research projects from the State Research Agency, and the María Goyri programme for the recruitment of teaching staff has been launched, which last year allocated over 100 million euros. Furthermore, the Government has allocated nearly 1.3 billion euros in grants for the 2025-2026 academic year, 42% more than eight years ago; it has reinstated the Séneca scholarships, which were abolished in 2013, and has increased funding for the UNED to 169 million euros.

The head of the Executive pointed out that the second reason for what is happening with public universities "has to do with the unmet demand for places". In fact, "in the 2024-2025 academic year, public universities offering face-to-face teaching received almost half a million first-choice applications for just over 245,000 places: almost two applications for every place". Thus, "a vicious circle is created: the lack of public university places drives many students towards the private sector, and this growth is then presented as a supposed preference on the part of families. But a choice forced by a lack of alternatives is not a choice. It is coercion. And a form of coercion that does not guarantee equality of opportunities", he denounced.

The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, together with the Minister for Science, Innovation and Universities, Diana Morant, talks with officials and scientists from the center | Pool Moncloa / Sandra Armada

Pedro Sánchez stated that the Government's response to this situation is to "expand provision" and, for that reason, "the additional budget allocated to the UNED includes a substantial allocation that will enable the creation of more than 20,000 new places by 2029".

The third reason, he explained, relates to the existence of universities offering programmes of questionable quality that are focused on making a profit. Consequently, the Government has tightened the requirements for establishing and recognising new universities, and, since October, any new university project must allocate at least 5% of its budget to research. In addition, lecturers must demonstrate research experience in at least 60% of their work.

In the president's view, "a university degree should be valuable regardless of where you study, who you are or what family you come from" and "it is vital that studying in Spain continues to open the same doors for everyone". "There are other options that aim to do what 'low-cost' airlines do: gradually get us used to the fact that the basics are no longer included", "turning the ordinary into an extra and what used to be a guarantee into a commodity". "We do not want that 'low-cost' model for our university system or for the future of research in our country", he stressed.

"We will not let our guard down, and the Government will fight to ensure that the University system remains one of the main drivers of social mobility, equality and the future, in terms of consolidating and improving our democratic system", he concluded.

Non official translation