A halt to the free bar for private universities: they will only be able to open with state approval.
The autonomous communities will not be able to give the green light to new centers without a favorable quality report.
Madrid / BarcelonaIn front of the rise of new private university centers that do not meet the quality criteria required by the Spanish government, the Council of Ministers approved this Tuesday the modification of the decree that toughens the criteria for the creation, recognition, and authorization of new universities. Spanish President Pedro Sánchez warned last March that he would put an end to the free bar of "university beach bars that do not meet the standard that should be required of higher education in the last two decades, which she said operate as "academies" and as "a degree-selling machine" endorsed by some regional governments. by ANECA (the state quality agency, which depends on the Spanish government) or by equivalent regional agencies, as is the case in Catalonia, in order to create a new privately owned university. If this phase is not passed, the project will decline. state technicians. For example, Madrid, which with thirteen private centers and six public centers is by far the region with the most notable imbalance between the public and private sectors. However, Andalusia and the Canary Islands have also developed centers despite the unfavorable response from experts. equity and prestige of the Spanish university system," stated the Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities, Diana Morant.
In fact, since 2005, 24 private universities have been created from scratch in the State, and head of public, which has made the former almost equal in number, 6 and "the titular ones". number of universities, the most striking thing is the increase in the number of students in private universities and the stagnation in public ones: in the last decade the public one has barely grown by 2%, while the private one [has done so] by 129%", Morant reported.
In fact, Spain breaks a record of students 2025-2026, but the minister has stressed that this growth is almost exclusively absorbed by private universities. "Although the first option continues to be to enter a public center, they do not have enough places to offer due to the underfunding of the autonomous communities", she said after criticizing that autonomous governments such as that of "Madrid".
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