Torras i Bages said that “the day the university is Catalan, the renaissance of Catalonia will truly begin”. And the fact is that the intellectuals of the moment do not look favourably on the existing university model. You just have to read Enric Prat de la Riba, who believes that the university is a simple "negotiation of scientific knowledge" and a transmitter of "official culture”.

To shake off the dust from such a beleaguered institution, meetings were held such as the First Catalan University Congress (1903), which called for the creation of chairs in Catalan — the great desire of Pompeu Fabra — Catalan Civil Law, History of Catalonia... The ideal would be to found a Catalan National University, but a more modest initiative emerged from the Congress: to create parallel Catalan university studies. It is prohibited to do them at the same university and, therefore, they will be taught at the Ateneu Barcelonès and the Centre Excursionista de Catalunya. Until Primo de Rivera arrives and stops everything.

In the autumn of 1918, the pandemic of the so-called Spanish flu experienced moments of great virulence in Catalonia. The Commonwealth installs health controls at ports and train stations, the Barcelona City Council closes water wells and prohibits the movement of herds through the city. They are also closing public schools and universities as a precaution. In fact, a young Josep Pla — who had begun studying Medicine and would eventually graduate in Law— tried to go to class, but found the doors closed:

“1918. March 8 — Because there is so much flu, they have had to close the University. Since then, my brother and I have been living at home, in Palafrugell, with the family. We are two lazy students. [...] I'm getting by. I don't miss Barcelona and especially not the University. I like village life, with the friends I have there”.

It is the first entry in the writer's diary. This is the beginning of El quadern gris. 
 

With the workers' struggle at its peak — the eight-hour workday had been achieved, at least in theory — both King Alfonso XIII and the business class decided to support Miguel Primo de Rivera's coup d'état. And the repression of Catalan culture and institutions during the dictatorship (1923-1930) was not long in coming: Sardana dancers are beaten up, thousands of books from Catalan libraries are burned, the Barça stadium is closed and the Orfeó Català is closed in perpetuity.

This repression also has repercussions on the university. The rector, Andrés Martínez Vargas, practices a discriminatory and repressive policy and this causes the resignation of some professors, such as the politician and writer Lluís Nicolau d'Olwer, author of the first history of Catalan literature written entirely in Catalan. Like society, the University is becoming politicized and the incompatibility between the immobilist and pro-government sectors and the reformist forces is becoming evident.