SPAIN: Universities gain more control under reforms

Spain’s Council of Ministers has approved a royal decree that aims to tighten courses of study for university students. The move is a response to the Bologna reforms and is intended to bring Spain into line with the education systems of other European countries by 2010.

The new regulation means universities will be forced to provide more information to the government’s Quality Assurance Agency than ever. They will have to provide details about how many students finish their courses on time and the numbers of those who fail to finish.

This will be particularly embarrassing for some university departments where it is estimated that only eight in every 100 students complete their courses on time. Overall, 90,000 students are believed to drop out every year, a level that costs the Spanish government some €1,200 million (US$1,700 million) a year.

In future, the government will no longer decide the content of courses, leaving universities responsible. They will also have to specify the skills and knowledge students are expected to have when they qualify, as well as lecturers’ capacity to teach their courses and the materials they will use to meet their objectives.

Institutions will have to demonstrate how they meet established minimum standards and present their proposals to the quality agency for approval. The course will then have to be accredited by the Ministry of Education and the corresponding autonomous community authority.

Besides having to provide objectives for academic results, universities will be required to detail their procedures for guaranteeing the quality of training for their lecturers, both at bachelor degree and master’s level.

Finally, while students already evaluate each subject during their courses, in future these will be assessed by the quality agency a year after their commencement and then at six-yearly intervals. This is a significant change because until now once a course was approved it was not subject to any further monitoring or control.

“The time has come,” said Miguel Recio, head of human resources at the Universidad de Educación a Distancia. “It seems fundamental to me that public services are monitored and evaluated.

“If universities do not fulfill their objectives they will have to correct their courses. If they do not do so they now face having their courses withdrawn.”