Spanish government takes control of Catalonian universities


Source: Nature



The Spanish government has taken over responsibility for higher education and research in Catalonia, following the region’s unilateral declaration of independence on 27 October. It will retain control of spending on research centres and universities, which the League of European Research Universities says threatens institutional autonomy.

The Catalonia region of north-east Spain has been in political turmoil ever since a highly controversial vote on independence was taken on 1 October. For the past 32 years the Catalan government has set and financed the budgets of universities, which were allocated €700 million (US$814 million) of the nearly €1-billion Catalan budget for science and universities in 2017. The region is strong in science: between 2007 and 2015, its universities won a 210 grants from the European Research Council, totalling €334 million. In the most recent round, 10 of the 22 ERC starting grants awarded to researchers in Spain were won by researchers based at Catalan institutions.

The Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport in Madrid will run Catalan universities and the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness will oversee the region’s research policy with immediate effect.



Cont’d.

LINK:
https://www.nature.com/news/spanish-government-takes-control-of-catalonian-universities-1.22922