Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 20^th July 2017. “Spain has quality universities, as is demonstrated by the international rankings which place all public Spanish universities within the top one thousand in the world, with very few countries ahead”, highlighted the Secretary General of Universities within the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sport,

Jorge Sainz, during the lecture he gave in the institutional headquarters of the ULPGC within the framework of the Breakfast Lectures initiative, organised annually by the Social Council of this academic institution. 

Sainz referenced Spanish university policies and the strategy defined by the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sport with regard to higher education, put forward in a motion passed in the lower house of the Spanish Parliament last December, and in which eight action points have been proposed with “the student at their heart”. This is in order for Spanish universities “to be more competitive on a global level and for which a more dynamic university system is needed, this only being possible through increased innovation and through a closer relationship with society and the business world”. Therefore, the Secretary General of Universities believes a more flexible regulatory framework is needed in universities, as is a more stable financing framework, with multi-annual plans driven by the Spanish regions”. Moreover, Sainz advocated for the “strengthening of university self-governance”.

The chairman of the ULPGC Social Council, Ángel Tristán, who introduced the Secretary General to those invited, demanded a better relationship between the university institutions and the social and productive fabric of their surroundings: “these two areas are constantly moving each other, but they should be kept in step with one other and, in the shortest time possible, we should take advantage of, on the one hand, society and the knowledge which universities produce and, on the part of the university, the demands of our society”. Ángel Tristán also made reference to the increasing “gaps between European and Spanish universities and between leading Spanish universities and the majority of Spanish universities” as well as to “the growing strength of new university governance”. Along these lines, the Secretary General of Universities highlighted that “any modifications concerning university governance should be the product of consensus and the motion passed in December creates a strong foundation for this dialogue”.

The ULPGC Social Council has organised, for the second year running, the Breakfast Lectures, a social and cultural initiative which aims to welcome renowned experts from the national and international university sphere to address the role and aims of Spanish higher education institutions and to strengthen their position and presence within society.

The ULPGC Social Council invited to this second edition lecturers, researchers, ULPGC sponsors, businesses which support the university, representatives of public bodies and institutions, as well as representatives of the business, social and cultural sectors.

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 31^st May 2016. The ULPGC Social Council invited Francesc Xavier Grau Vidal, professor and ex-Rector of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili, and head of the Global University Network for Innovation (GUNI), to a new social and cultural initiative held in the Aula de Piedra of the ULPGC institutional headquarters: The Breakfast Lectures. This brought together lecturers, researchers, ULPGC sponsors, the ULPGC governing team, representatives of public bodies and institutions, and entrepreneurs from the Canary Islands.

With this first forum, based around the lecture by Francesc Xavier Grau entitled “The Financing of Spanish Public Universities: A Model for Spanish Public Universities”, the Social Council seeks to open the debate concerning the suitable financing model for the Spanish public university system.

In his speech, Doctor Grau proposed some foundations for a new financing model for the Spanish public universities within the current framework of the European Higher Education Area. Along these lines, Xavier Grau highlighted that the greater a country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the higher their investment in research and that, likewise, the higher the investment in research, the higher the GDP. Along the same vein, he underlined that Spain currently finds itself falling outside of this equation, thus becoming more distant from the trend seen in the EU15 countries. 

The financing of public universities is permanently up for debate, particularly in this age of global competition between countries and regions, which is increasingly based on the added value of knowledge embedded within production and services. Grau suggested that to lay the foundations of a financing model the first requirement is to decide, as a society, where the primary responsibility lies with regard to the relative assessment, conducted by society, concerning the public or private benefit of higher education and research. 

Secondly, Xavier Grau demonstrated the need to decide upon the human and scientific dimensions of the higher education and research system, which should be the true basis for establishing the total cost. In order to define this dimension, the professor analysed it in each of the OECD countries, in terms of the overall investment of each, and presented the relationship between this and the different parameters concerning the quality of life and human development in the various countries. He looked in greater detail at the western European countries, specifically the 15 countries of the European Union prior to its expansion to include the eastern countries. 

Thirdly, Professor Grau conducted a detailed and exhaustive analysis of the budgets of all the research universities within European countries where there are comparable aspects to the different Spanish university systems from the biggest Spanish regions. The objective of this analysis was to identify a basic financing structure (the weight of contributions from the public, the students, and public and private research projects) which could serve as a model for all of these. 

Finally, with all the aforementioned information, the professor concluded by proposing a model, with a concrete size, structure and shape, which he exemplified with the case of his region, Catalonia.

The presidents of the CEOE [Spanish Confederation of Employer’s Organisations] and the CCS [Conference of Social Councils of Spanish Universities], Antonio Garamendi and Antonio Abril Abadín, today signed an agreement whereby both organisations will establish a solid relationship in order to bring the business and university spheres closer together, so as to improve higher education.

This agreement, which establishes a backdrop of cooperation, reflects the importance of collaborating on a number of priority issues. These include strengthening the relationship between universities and businesses through enabling the transfer of knowledge and university research, highlighting the value of this for the productive sector, and achieving excellency in our university education, bringing it in line with the needs of our current technological society and its businesses in order to foster the employability of our students and to promote an entrepreneurial spirit.

Within this collaborative framework the CEOE and CCS will reinforce the role of business representatives within the social councils, and will implement information, training and outreach programmes for the improvement of the Spanish university system, while highlighting its importance. They will also develop specific undertakings, such as promoting business professors and industrial doctorates, grants for internships in industry, and prizes for entrepreneurship.

Both institutions will notably work to identify the academic profiles currently most in demand, to ensure student’s receive career advice concerning these and, alongside this, to adapt the higher education courses offered to the needs of society and businesses. This is all within a global, technological and sustainable world, where it is necessary to train students in not only fundamental ethical principles and values, but also in professional skills which, nowadays, are transferable skills vital for their employability.

The CEOE and CCS already joined forces in September of last year during a public ceremony in the lower house of the Spanish parliament. They were joined by the CEPYME [Spanish Confederation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises], CRUE [Spanish Conference of Rectors of Universities], the Spanish Chamber of Commerce, CSIF [Spanish Central Independent and Public Employee’s Trade Union], CREUP [Spanish Public Universities’ Students Union], FeSP-UGT [Spanish General Workers Union’s Federation of Public Service Employees] and FECCOO [Teaching Association of the Spanish Workers’ Commissions]. Together they called on our parliamentary representatives to make universities a bigger priority in Spain and, through a major national agreement, to address the passing of a new Universities Act [Ley Orgánica Universitaria] with guarantees of stability and permanence, necessary reforms, and the modernisation of university education in Spain.

The signing of the agreement was also attended by the secretary general of the CCS, Miguel Ángel Acosta, and the chairman of the CEOE Education and Training Commission, José Antonio Sarría.

In the words of Antonio Garamendi, “this is a very important agreement for businesses and for Spain”. The president of the CEOE emphasised that “we need people to be better qualified and for this we will work hand in hand with the university social councils”. He also added that employers wish to help and to offer their experience “collaborating in the governance of the university sector, which is essential for our country, for education and for progress”.

Antonio Abril Abadín explained that the agreement “seeks to establish a stable framework within which to improve the relationship between businesses and universities, on which the employability of our students and the wellbeing of our society are dependent”.

The Conference of Social Councils of Spanish Universities (CCS) is calling on political parties to “open up the process of drafting and passing a new law on universities within the context of a major national agreement” because “changing the obsolete current legislation has now become a genuine national emergency”. Antonio Abril Abadín, president of the CCS – which brings together the social councils of public universities and the councils and boards of private universities – communicated to the secretary general of the PSOE and acting prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, during a meeting held today in Madrid, that “continuing to repeatedly defer action will take us ever further away from international standards and will, in the medium and long term, damage the training of our human, scientific and technological capital”. The meeting, also attended by the secretary general of the CCS, Miguel Ángel Acosta, is part of a number of meetings the acting prime minister is holding with social groups.

During the failed investiture debate, Pedro Sánchez promised to promote a new Universities Act [Ley Orgánica Universitaria] with the consensus of the education community and the Spanish regions. For the CCS, the two pillars which must be upheld by this reform are “a new model of university governance equivalent to those within the European Higher Education Area, and the necessary improvement of the financing system”.

The president of the CCS insisted that “we cannot limit ourselves to mere modifications. We need to undertake comprehensive changes which are genuinely transformative and which allow Spanish universities to be an authentic motor for economic growth and social wellbeing in the digital world of our time”.

In September of last year he issued a communiqué in the lower house of the Spanish parliament along with the CRUE [Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities] and social stakeholders. In this communiqué they called for political representatives to make Spanish universities one of their strategic priorities and to promote a new Universities Act with the support of a wide ranging social and political consensus, enshrined in a major national agreement.

In November, the CCS General Assembly approved the “Maspalomas Manifesto”, warning of “the serious risk we run if these vital reforms are not urgently undertaken”, while also appealing to “the courage, the generosity and the great intentions of our policy makers, so that this appeal does not fall on deaf ears”.

The CCS has set out a number of priorities in a proposal supported by the structural reforms carried out by members of the European Union over the past two decades and enumerated in a joint project undertaken by the Spanish Chamber of Commerce and the Fundación CYD [Spanish Knowledge and Development Foundation]. These priorities are: the need to raise awareness within Spanish society as to the importance of education, to promote structural reforms to the university governance model, to increase public and private funding for universities, and to foster the employability of students through the increased excellence of the education system and through public-private sector cooperation.

The General Assembly of the Conference of Social Councils of Spanish Universities (CCS) unanimously voted the chairman of the ULPGC Social Council, Jesús León Lima, as a new member of the executive committee of the university social councils’ representative body in regard to public authorities. This representative body is presided over by Antonio Abril, chairman of the University of A Coruña Social Council.

The executive committee of the CCS is the highest governing body of university social councils and is dedicated to managing and representing the interests of this association, in line with the guidelines established by the General Assembly.

A chairman, two vice-chairmen and seven spokespeople, in addition to the secretary general of the CCS – a role currently held by Miguel Ángel Acosta, secretary general of the ULPGC Social Council – form this committee.

Jesús León Lima, who was named chairman of the ULPGC Social Council last May, now takes up one of the vacant spokesperson positions within the national board, alongside the chairman of the University of Valencia Social Council, María Emilia Adán, who was also appointed during the most recent CCS General Assembly.

These international meetings, seen as highly prestigious by university experts, take place at the ULPGC thanks to the work and commitment of Dr. Sara M. González Betancor, a lecturer with the ULPGC’s Faculty of Economics, Business and Tourism and current vice-president of the Economics of Education Association. Sara is a member of the ULPGC “Economy of Education and Public Policy” research group, where she has been researching the Economics of Education for the past 15 years.

The ULPGC Social Council’s plenary voted unanimously in favour of naming businesswoman Ana Suárez Calvo as the body’s new vice-chairman, acting on the proposal of current chairman Jesús León Lima. Ana Suárez assumes this role having acted as a spokesperson for the Council since 1st March 2018, representing businesses which regularly collaborate with the ULPGC. She holds a degree in economic and business studies and a masters in management from Spain’s School for Industrial Organisation (EOI). She is the executive director of the Germán Suárez Investments Group, which is affiliated with companies including Astican (Astilleros Canarios S.A), Astander, Inerza, Binter, Hospitales San Roque, and THE Hotels.

In addition, Ana Suárez currently holds the post of secretary general of Fedeport [the Federation of Port Companies of the Canary Islands] and is a spokesperson on the Board of the Las Palmas Ports Foundation. She now assumes a new responsibility within the Social Council’s new committee, through which she aims to strengthen the relationship between the university and the business and social sectors of the Canary Islands. Ana Suárez thanked the plenary for its confidence in her and stressed “that businesses should be even more involved in the work of the university, as it is precisely the university which generates our main assets as businesses: professional and human capital”.

Two additional new members took up their posts during this social council plenary session, having been recently nominated by the Canary Island’s regional government following the completion of the previous representatives’ mandate. The new spokespeople instated were Ana Batista García, the current executive director of the Canary Islands’ Agency for the Protection of the Urban and Rural Environment, and Rogelio Mesa Pérez, environmental expert for Endesa.

Elsewhere, in his report to the plenary, the chairman of the social council, Jesús León, highlighted the great work of the ULPGC Internal Monitoring Department, which in the first months of this year has already published 185 reports on the auditing of university affairs. On a similar note, it was announced that various outstanding audits concerning the ULPGC Science and Technology Park Foundation would soon be commissioned. Completion of the survey carried out amongbachillerato students, with the aim of discovering their preferences regarding higher education, was also reported. The data from this survey and the analysis of their results will be the main focus of the fourth ULPGC Barometer Survey, which is undertaken annually by the Social Council and is expected to be presented this coming July.

Alongside other areas of interest, the plenary issued a favourable report concerning the introduction of the new ULPGC undergraduate degree in data engineering. This request was tabled by the vice-rector for qualifications and lifelong learning, Marcos Peñate, and is expected to be rolled out within the School of Computer Engineering during the 2020-2021 academic year. This new degree seeks to respond to the current demand within the business world for data handling and, in particular, that pertaining to the efficient extraction of useful information, its analysis, and the management of the data available. Within this are included the methods and tools dealing with Big Data.

The Social Council named Tomás Van de Valle as its representative on the RIC ULPGC S.A company’s Board of Directors. He is currently a member of the council as a representative for the scientific and cultural sector.

At the request of the chairman of the social council, the plenary session held a minute silence in honour of the council’s ex chairman, Mr. Domingo Bello, who recently passed away.

During an extraordinary meeting held today, 18^th June, the Plenary approved the 2018 annual accounts. These accounts had previously been audited by the ULPGC Internal Monitoring Department, which falls under the authority of the Social Council. The director of the ULPGC, Eulalia Gil, explained to the members of the plenary that in 2018 the budget for the ULPGC and its associated businesses and foundations amounted to 173.26 million euros.

The director highlighted the following as key areas of the 2018 annual accounts. The ULPGC’s adherence to the principle of budgetary stability in accordance with the established regulations, and the academic institution’s suitable level of financial health, with a positive remnant of treasury of 28.9 million euros freely available at the close of 2018.

The Plenary highlighted “the exercise in transparency and accountability” carried out by the ULPGC for another year, through submitting its annual accounts and the verification “of the progress made by the ULPGC management team with regards to the various improvements implemented around economic management and accountability, as a result of the reports conducted by the Internal Monitoring Department and the initiatives embarked upon by the institution’s management”. In this way, the Social Council has corroborated that, for the 14^th consecutive year, the ULPGC “remains financially healthy”, highlighting the surplus valued at 5.19 million euros in 2018, a figure almost double that of 2017, which amounted to 2.8 million euros.

Alongside other remarks, the Social Council indicated to the ULPGC management that the institution should prioritise the implementation of an economic and financial plan, with the aim of responding to the demands for accountability set out in the General Public Chart of Accounts. Moreover, it was requested during the plenary session that the ULPGC apply measures to facilitate an increased control over their material fixed assets, “with the aim of more accurately understanding the book value of the goods in its name”.

Lastly, the Social Council recognised “the ongoing effort undertaken by the Canary Islands, through its Ministry for Education and Universities, in order to maintain the rate of transfers made to Canarian universities, within a context where revenue from prior to the crisis beginning in 2008 has still not been recovered”. However, the Social Council did also renew its application to the Canary Islands’ regional government for “the establishment of a stable financing framework for the Canary Islands’ public universities, in order to promote competition, internationalisation and the exchange of R+D+i among these universities, implementing target-based funding mechanisms”.

Approval of the Social Council’s 2018 payments

The Plenary also unanimously approved the settlement of the Social Council’s 2018 budget. The Social Council’s secretary general, Miguel Ángel Acosta, reported that the final budget of this university organisation in 2018 amounted to 491,932 euros with a 94.75% degree of implementation during this financial year.

The secretary highlighted for the Plenary some of the initiatives undertaken in 2018 as the main lines of approach concerning the Social Council’s budget, emphasising those carried out by the Internal Monitoring Department with regards to auditing. Furthermore, the first subsidies were awarded in relation to the ULPGC’s Friends and Benefactors Programme, the ULPGC Mentor Scheme was continued in order to help students with difficulties in certain subjects, and the new ULPGC Barometer Survey was published, on this occasion in order to discover the opinion of the teaching and research staff regarding the institution.

Finally, alongside other items on the agenda, the Social Council approved the termination of the double degree in computer engineering and business administration and management which, as the rector of the ULPGC explained, is “primarily linked to the renovation and modification of the educational programme relating to one of the qualifications which make up this double degree”.