Lakua passed the bill in March that opens the way to Euneiz University (European University Gasteiz). Ratification by the Basque Parliament is lacking, but there does not seem to be any problems in doing so. The university will have two faculties, Health Sciences and New Technologies, and will offer, among others, degrees of physiotherapy, sports sciences and digital content creation, already offered by the public university. The website is only available in Spanish and English.

It is a project promoted by the Baskonia-Alavés Group of Josean Kerejeta, with the support of the private universities of Girona and Tarragona, which according to their own words will bring innovation, but last year the UPV/EHU’s own director, Nekane Balluerka, said, when the initiative was made known: the project makes no sense.

The Steilas trade union also strongly criticized the project: in these times when the pandemic has shown us the importance of public services – and of taking care of them – what and what the private university is going to do. “Like most private universities, it comes to do business on the pretext of lack of supply; as long as it receives public resources and benefits, it will compete with the public university and increasingly weaken the UPV/EHU, which has less and less funding.”

From September onwards, it will be necessary to see what the new university is on, what contribution it is expected to make, what students will be able to study there and how it will affect the same or similar public university studies, even if these students move into the world of work, to see if the market will embrace differently what they have learned in one or the other.