Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

LAS ENCRUCIJADAS ESTRATÉGICAS DE LA UNIVERSIDAD PÚBLICA ESPAÑOLA

2011; Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport; Volume: 355; Issue: 355 Linguagem: Inglês

0034-8082

Albert Corominas Subias, Vera Sacristán Adinolfi,

History of Education in Spain

The Spanish university has experienced a substantial change in the last thirty years, in which it has contributed significantly to the cultural and economic progress of our society. A reflection on the university strategy, analysing alternatives concerning the basic aspects of the future of the institution, is now required. This paper examines the main options for some of them, concerning both academic activities and the means and tools to carry them out. Regarding teaching, we discuss: how to combine increased access to university studies with advanced training paths, to lead to the question of the two-track university; the relationship between knowledge and transversal skills and, finally, the prospects for the renewal of teaching methodology. Concerning investigation and transfer, we discuss the functions and the consequent orientation of university research activity, and its predominantly cooperative nature. As for funding, we analyse who should pay teaching and research, and whether the funding of public universities should be basically public or private. Regarding staff, we highlight the need of increasing the qualifications of the administration and technical personnel and its stability, and we discuss the process of faculty towards precariousness, the need to invert this process and to take into account the diversity of functions of this personnel, both as regards their organization and the possibility of strengthening their dedication to one task or another throughout their career. About the government of universities, a classification of the decisions and allocation of responsibilities to different organs, internal and external to the university, are proposed. Some brief conclusions close the paper.