At a time when the debate on the future of universities is once again on the political agenda, funding, governance, and jurisdiction are often discussed, but far too little is said about what is truly at stake: the model itself. Over the last two decades, Catalonia has built a university system with its own distinct profile, geared towards international competitiveness and attracting talent. The question is not only whether this model has borne fruit—the data suggests it has—but whether we are prepared to preserve it.

The new law on universities that minister Manuel Castells is preparing is generating a lot of discomfort and protest in the Catalan university system, from where the regulatory bias that tinges the text is not understood, especially unpredictable coming from an academic like Castells, with experience in the United States and also linked to a centre like the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia). The governance profile of the Catalan universities, which, despite their funding problems, usually top the quality rankings in Spain, has been distancing itself from that of the rest of Spain by gaining autonomy. However, paradoxically, the draft law, instead of rewarding this model, or at least respecting it with a flexible legal framework, opts for a rigid, functional and recentralising system.