Showing papers by "Francisco Marcos published in 2003"
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TL;DR: The Spanish university system has witnessed many changes in the last thirty years as discussed by the authors, specially through the recognition of legal status to private universities, and the shortage of students since 1998 and the drop on demand for higher education (aggravated by the extraordinary increase in offer, as the number of universities more than doubled since 1982).
Abstract: The Spanish university system has witnessed many changes in the last thirty years. Initial conditions for competition were laid down in 1983, specially through the recognition of legal status to private universities. However, the shortage of students since 1998 and the drop on demand for higher education (aggravated by the extraordinary increase in offer, as the number of universities more than doubled since 1982) has prompted further reform in the last few years. A new regulation was enacted in 2001 in order to force market-like behavior and to privatize some operating conditions of state universities(free choice of university by students, hiring policies, quality assessment and accountability to the public, allocation of research funds and rankings). Although it might be too early to assess the effectiveness of these changes, public funding remains mostly unchanged and this is a key issue that would need to be modified in order to provide conditions of authentic competition in the higher education industry. Although the market has been introduced in the provision of higher education in Spain, endless (almost) public funding of state universities is a powerful distortion preventing the development of a truly competitive and fair market.
5 citations
TL;DR: A new regulation was adopted in 2001 in order to impose market-like behaviour and privatise some of the operating conditions of State universities, such as the freedom of students to choose their university, hiring policies, quality assessment and public accountability, the allocation of research funds and rankings as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The Spanish university system has witnessed many changes during the last thirty years. Initial conditions for competition were established in 1983, especially through the legal recognition of private universities. However, a shortage of students since 1998 and a drop in demand for higher education, which has been aggravated by an extraordinary increase in supply, has prompted further reform in the past few years. A new regulation was adopted in 2001 in order to impose market-like behaviour and privatise some of the operating conditions of State universities, such as the freedom of students to choose their university, hiring policies, quality assessment and public accountability, the allocation of research funds and rankings. Although it is probably too early to assess the impact of these changes, it is clear that public funding remains largely unchanged. This is a key issue that needs to be addressed in order to create the appropriate conditions for competition in the higher education industry. Although the market has been introduced into the provision of higher education in Spain, the continued public funding of State universities creates a powerful distortion that prevents the development of a truly fair and competitive market.
2 citations