Towards a low-cost university system?

The University of the Balearic Islands (UIB) enters the top 10 public universities with the highest percentage of precarious teaching staff according to a study by the University of Granada.

Virginia Servera

The almost poetic idea of the figure of the university professor, who is assumed to have a high social position, is fading away. A recent study by the University of Granada warns of the spread of precariousness in the teaching staff of Spanish public universities, especially since the beginning of this century. 

The 2001 Organic Law on Universities (LOU) and its subsequent modification in 2007 (LOMLOU) opened the door, according to the study, to the consolidation of temporary entry figures to the teaching career, such as associate professors and interim substitutes, as well as promoting the de-functionalisation of teaching staff. This, combined with a context of economic crisis, which brought with it a halving of public spending on universities and replacement rates of 0 %, would explain why in recent years precariousness has spread in many universities, giving rise to a model that the authors of the report describe as low cost, with low salaries, high temporariness, difficulties in achieving stabilisation and a delay in the incorporation into the teaching career that has repercussions on the ageing of the staff.

The UIB stands out in terms of precariousness

At the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB) the percentage of associate lecturers has been increasing to reach 50.55% of the staff, a figure well above the national average (32.99%), according to the University Staff Statistics (EPU). The study places the highest educational institution of the Islands in eighth place in the ranking of universities that most frequently employ precarious staff in order to reduce costs. 

To correct this situation, which the UIB attributes to “the lack of funding and the limitations of the replacement rate”, the vice-rector of Teaching and Research Staff at the University of the Balearic Islands, Antoni Bordoy, says that “a process has begun that will conclude in January 2024 and will stabilise 117 temporary and interim staff positions”. In addition, thanks to government funding injections and the unification of financial allocations, around 90 new full-time positions will be created, he says. With these actions, it is expected that “by the end of 2023, the number of hours taught by associated teaching and research staff (PDI) will have fallen to 42.87%”, he predicts. Furthermore, “the government team has presented the Govern with a programme to reduce the percentage of associated teaching and research staff to 35% in three years”, he concludes.

False associates and resignation 

“The fact that there are such high percentages of associate lecturers raises suspicions about the existence of false associates, i.e. lecturers who do not have a job outside the university,” warns José Manuel Torrado, co-author of the study.

Asked about the lack of mobilisation among the affected lecturers, Torrado points to the logic of recruitment: “Not much noise is made because they want to forge good relations with the recruitment committees, which are made up of permanent members of the department itself. Often the fact of having raised resistance can be taken as an attack on the institution itself and that undermines the chances of consolidating yourself as a professor,” he complains.