Resident Of Crue Affirms That Overqualification Of Graduates Is Due To Lack Of Opportunities

The president of Crue Spanish Universities and rector of the University of Córdoba, José Carlos Gómez Villamandos, has stated, during the closing ceremony of the presentation of the Report of the Knowledge and Development Foundation (CYD) 2021, that the so-called “overqualification” of University graduates, of which this document warns, is due to the “lack of opportunities” offered by the productive fabric.

Gómez Villamandos has intervened through a video in this event directed by the president of the CYD Foundation, Ana Botín, who has been accompanied in person by the president of the Executive Committee of this entity, Javier Monzón, and the director of Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Mateo Valero. The Minister of Universities, Manuel Castells, also closed the event with a video.

“Overqualification, you know our opinion, endorsed by data, is the lack of opportunities offered to our young people, and that these are concentrated geographically”, stressed the president of Crue, who recalled that the document Spain 2050, points out that the “first challenge” as a country is “to be more productive” and identifies the business structure, made up mostly of micro-enterprises, as one of the “serious weaknesses” of the Spanish economy that “weighs on productivity and competitiveness”.

The also rector of the University of Córdoba has reiterated before this audience, in which was the member of the Permanent Committee of Crue and rector of the University of the Basque Country, Eva Ferreira, the need to remember that the Spanish University System «is one one of the best and most equitable systems in Europe ”, despite being one of the“ worst funded and with less autonomy in personnel and academic policies ”.

Academic Offer
Regarding rationalizing and making the academic offer more flexible to better respond to society’s demands, the president of Crue has also indicated that universities “want and can” address this reality, not without warning that public service implies maintaining the offer of degrees with low enrollment in socially necessary areas. “Can you imagine that we would have closed Mathematics as not long ago we were demanded?”, He asked, to answer that now it is one of the most demanded careers. “We do not know what the profiles of the future will be like,” he asserted.

The president of Crue has recognized that “the internationalization of universities has room for improvement”, but has also explained that this matter has two derivatives: On the one hand, the development of joint international degrees, for which a relaxation of current regulations; and on the other, greater autonomy in human resource management to attract and retain international talent.

Regarding the reflection that Spanish universities must lead the changes towards a sustainable society model, as the report points out, Gómez Villamandos recalled that university institutions have been working for years on the objectives of the 2030 Agenda and demanding more participation and responsibility, by as in entrepreneurship, to stop depopulation or to be a strategic part of Global Spain. “All this was reflected in our document University 2030, we will continue working and claiming, do not hesitate,” he added.

The Next Generation Fund Opportunity and LOSU
The president of Crue has warned of the opportunity that European Next Generation funds represent for universities and has recalled the role of participation that these can have in the Government’s Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.

«Our proposal is to transform university campuses into poles of economic development from an integral perspective. Universities have the potential to do so and we can also attract significant funds from the Next Generation program of the EU, “said Gómez Villamandos, who has also warned of the” expiration “of these funds and that, if they are not They take the opportunity to structurally reinforce the system, “there will be no more opportunities as a country.”

The rector of the University of Córdoba recalled that the draft of the Organic Law of the University System (LOSU) is also a “perfect window, if it is done thinking about what Spain needs and not what the agents demand for themselves.”