ACUP's statement in the context of the parliamentary debate on the approval of the Government of Catalonia's budgets
In the current context of the parliamentary debate on the Catalan Governmentʼs 2017 budgets, the Catalan Association of Public Universities (ACUP) asserts their declaration of October 27, 2016.
This declaration demands a stable university finance model which ensures the economic sufficiency of the universities so that these can fulfill their aims, hoping to reach -in the medium-term- the average funding ratio of the OECD countries (1,22% of PIB). Likewise, they demand a degressivity of the university enrolment prices for the students, to be equal to the OECD average, which is a 14% -but provided that this measure is not carried out infringing the improvement of the finance in public universities.
In the current context of the parliamentary debate on the Catalan Governmentʼs 2017 budgets, the Catalan Association of Public Universities (ACUP) asserts their declaration of October 27, 2016.
This declaration demands a stable university finance model which ensures the economic sufficiency of the universities so that these can fulfill their aims, hoping to reach -in the medium-term- the average funding ratio of the OECD countries (1,22% of PIB). Likewise, they demand a degressivity of the university enrolment prices for the students, to be equal to the OECD average, which is a 14% -but provided that this measure is not carried out infringing the improvement of the finance in public universities.
In short, ACUPʼs declaration links an essential global improvement from a very precarious finance of the universities to a proportional reduction of enrolment prices. Since the declaration results from the unanimity of its members, and has not been debated on until this date with the Government or parliamentary groups, ACUP cannot currently accept this to be understood as a subject for the debates and decisions of the Generalitat de Catalunya. It does not accept that the number of rectors and presidents of the Boards of Trustees serves to base any measurement related to the finance of universities -taken without the participation of the heads of the university.
In these lines, ACUP asks the Government and Parliament to count with the participation of the heads of the universities as long as they take decisions on aspects that fulfill the main objectives of the university institutions as well as their current and future sustainability.