Political row stokes ‘ongoing academic corruption’ fears

A row over whether or not the president of the Community of Madrid used her influence to obtain a masters degree has led to 30 university professors from across Spain signing a petition to denounce ongoing ‘academic corruption’ in Spanish educational institutions.

The professors say the case against Cristina Cifuentes, the Partido Popular (PP, a conservative party) president of Madrid’s Autonomous Community, is “a scandal without precedent” and argue that “the future of the public university and science in Spain will be determined by how this crisis is resolved.”

The so-called ‘fake masters’ row also involves Pablo Casado, an MP and the PP’s deputy head of communications, who has also faced questions over how he obtained a masters degree. Casado initially told the Spanish national newspaper El Pais that he “couldn’t recall attending classes and the exams”.

The scandal, which began on 21 March after journalists from the online newspaper eldiario.es revealed that Cifuentes had not attended classes nor written a dissertation to complete her masters at King Juan Carlos University in Madrid, has led to Cifuentes renouncing her qualification – and a demand from the political party, Ciudadanos (Citizens), for Mariano Rajoy, PP’s national president, to replace her or face them supporting a censure motion presented by the PSOE (socialist party).

If Ciudadanos backs the PSOE motion, this could lead to the fall of the PP in the Community of Madrid and would represent a big blow to the party nationally, which has already been weakened by the crisis in Catalonia.

Both Cifuentes and Casado deny any wrongdoing.

Cifuentes hit back last week by stating that she had no intention of resigning because there are no “objective” reasons to do so and because she has done nothing “illegal”.

Her case was lent some support on 18 April when a judge accepted that her complaint against two eldiario.es journalists for ‘illicitly’ obtaining personal academic documents could proceed. Cifuentes had argued that the publication’s articles have been "manipulated" and resulted in "great slander”.

University staff under pressure

The crisis has put management and staff at King Juan Carlos University under great pressure. The university says that they cannot locate Cifuente’s dissertation from the course she was registered on in 2012, and two of the three signatories on her certificate said that their signatures had been forged.

Laura Nuño, the deputy director of the Institute of Public Law, subsequently resigned from the university department in question. “I never even taught a single class to Cristina Cifuentes,” Nuño said, there has been “an absolute [breakdown in] trust”.

Corruption is ‘common practice’

The scandal initially focused on King Juan Carlos University, which awarded the masters to Cifuentes, but it has now spread as the 30 academics argue that it is more than a case of ‘a few rotten apples’. “Corruption and the ‘abuse of power’ behind this case are well known by any academic…”, they argue, “because they are […] common practice; it is just that no-one speaks about it in public.”

The professors argue that there is impunity in Spain for those who are “immoral, fraudulent or criminal” and demand the resignation of both Cifuentes and the academic board of King Juan Carlos University for “sowing doubts in the management of the scandal”.

“Academic corruption has become institutionalised and is at the service of … administrative and political figures,” they contend. “We need to begin a new phase.”

However, while other academics recognised the problem, they do not all agree that corruption is so endemic. “Cases such as this give the impression that there is favouritism and, even though this is not generally the case among universities here, it is damaging,” said Pablo Simón, professor of political science at Carlos III University of Madrid, to the Guardian newspaper.