- ELA says that the funding that the Basque Government allocates to public university is lower than the average for Europe, Spain and France. The unions have read the data: they have warned us of the lack of commitment to public university and of the risks of the privatization trend. "There are very few countries that finance less than us at public university."
ELA has analysed data from 2012 to 2018, taking into account the statistical entities Eustat and Eurostat. On average, European states allocate 0.91% of gross domestic product to public universities, 1.04% to France and 0.82% to Spain. In the CAPV, the Basque Government allocates 0.4% to the UPV/EHU, less than half of the European average.
“The government does not invest enough, and the percentage is falling year after year,” says Juantxo Mokoroa. At the same time, the contribution and weight of the Basque Government in the UPV/EHU budget is decreasing: It was 76.5% in 2012 and today it is 73.6%”. ELA calls for public investment to increase at least to the European average.
"The Basque Culinary Center has been subsidized by the transfer of the building while the UPV/EHU Faculty of Medicine building remains inactive for years"
Juantxo Mokoroa and Ane Bilbao ELA have been called to attention at first, but have come to a quick conclusion: “There is no real bet,” says Bilbao, for the public university. Private studies are cheaper and there is nothing else to do with the recent movements of the Basque Government: The private university of Euneiz Vitoria has received a great deal of money, although we have repeated several times that in our country we have the studies that come to offer in Euneiz; or the Basque Culinary Center have left the building, while the building of the Faculty of Medicine of the UPV/EHU remains inactive for years.”
The logic of the private market in studies
In this situation, on the one hand, Bilbao says that it is a notorious lack of investment (see salaries, cuts, devaluation of working conditions…), and on the other hand, that the university has to look for new ways of financing: “The logic of the private market comes to studies and many careers are relegated to this competition from the logic of the market.” At the same time, the promotion of cooperation with private companies carries the risk of “introducing the logic of the private market into the studies”.
The proliferation of private universities such as Euneiz or Basque Culinary Center is compromised by Bilbao: “Education should be one of the most effective balancing tools for tackling social imbalances and inequalities, the university should be a reflection of this, it should ensure equal opportunities, but the privatization trend involves priming and deepening the imbalance of exclusive learnings for the elite.”