Lately, changes are taking place in the universities of Hego Euskal Herria. The progress of the Spanish elections at the end of July accelerated some of these changes and halted or delayed others. In the previous coalition government in Spain, the university sphere was in the hands of Podemos, and the violet party had several proposals to influence the university situation. It is noteworthy that the most important decisions on the general regulations of universities are taken outside the Basque Country, that is, we have a low level of sovereignty in terms of higher education and research.

Among the projects that have not advanced is the attempt to reform university education teaching, which has had little impact on the public sphere. A profound change in Early Childhood and Primary Education degrees was proposed towards February-March. Although the proposal was driven by a party like Podemos, I believe that it prevailed a rather uncritical view of education (without mentioning social class or socioeconomic inequalities, for example). But, in addition, it had a centralizing character, since from Spain more content was decided than before, and from the universities themselves and, in our case, from Euskal Herria the ability to define content was greatly limited.

This proposal, which was kept in the drawer for various reasons, including its great opposition, has not happened the same with the new university law LOSU which has had the greatest impact. Several reasons were raised for the drafting of the law: the improvement of the working conditions of the PDI, the democratization of university governance, etc. Of course, the regulations have an introduction indicating that the university needs more funding to move closer to European parameters. Specifically, the intention is expressed to allocate 1% of GDP to the University (currently, for example, 0.4% in CAPV). But, as I say, these intentions are not legal.

LOSU is in force and has begun to apply. As far as one of its most important objectives is concerned, there has been a paradoxical situation in terms of limiting the precariousness of workers. As the unions of the UPV/EHU and the Coordinadora de Precarios Trabajadores have denounced, the working conditions of the substitutions have begun to deteriorate greatly with the entry into force of the new law. In replacements, from now on only teaching hours will be paid, which will entail a significant wage reduction. It will obviously have consequences for the quality of education. I mentioned that the situation is paradoxical, because a law intended to improve working conditions, in the case of the UfW, is actually going to be used to severely damage working conditions.

The truth is, you could do another interpretation of the law. I hope that this will be the case, because, as the agents cited have pointed out, a conflict will occur in the autumn in the Basque public university.

But, moreover, this issue also has to do with the lack of sovereignty to which the principle refers. And not only because we are talking about a law decided outside the Basque Country, but because it is a regulation that has been drawn up taking into account the needs of other territories. Although it may be an instrument to limit precariousness in other universities in the Spanish State (I hope so), at the moment in our country it is an instrument to harm working conditions, and in any case it will not be an effective instrument for our needs.