La Laguna (Tenerife) (EFE).- The professor of Business Organization, Francisco García, who on Thursday took office as rector of the University of La Laguna, has called for a social pact for the public university, but also unity internal.
Francisco García, who replaces Rosa Aguilar at the head of the University of La Laguna, also said during his investiture speech that the mission of the public university should not be reduced to employability.
Thus, he highlighted that, according to the Active Population Survey (EPA) for the fourth quarter of 2022, the unemployment rate in the Canary Islands was 14.5 percent of the population, only after Andalusia and Extremadura, but for people with a degree higher the rate was 14.1 percent.
The difference in employability in favor of the population with a degree is repeated systematically in any context, place and time, added the rector of the University of La Laguna.
Francisco García has also pointed out that, according to the data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE) corresponding to 2021, the Canary Islands presented the highest value of the inequality ratio in the distribution of income of the autonomous communities as a whole.
For this reason, he stressed, it is evident that higher education provides those who complete it with the necessary tools and skills to adapt more adequately to the labor market, but also, he has reiterated, the analyzes confirm that it also improves job stability, working conditions, the level of income and the possibilities of reconciling work, personal and family life.
The rector of the University of La Laguna has also said that, according to the Ministry of Universities for the 2021-2022 academic year, the net rate of university enrollment, which measures the percentage of the population between 18 and 24 years old that is enrolled in a master’s or degree studies, was 32 percent in Spain as a whole, approximately one in three young people.
In the case of the Canary Islands, the percentage is 18.1 percent, one in five young people in that age range, and for Francisco García what is relevant is that a correlation can be clearly seen between the levels of the population with university education, economic development, employability and other variables linked to the quality of employment.
The rector has also referred to the fact that the Canary Islands, with 105.9 euros per inhabitant, is the autonomous community that invests the least in Research, Development and Innovation, and has commented that to reverse this situation, only public universities can be looked at.
Francisco García has emphasized that in the Canary Islands more public universities are also needed to face challenges such as adapting to the university law that came into force last April, and that will entail the renewal of the staff but also other efforts, for which You will need to be calm.
In this area, he has called for a great pact for the public university, which involves the whole of society, so that it begins by making a shared diagnosis and then specifying the actions that look beyond the electoral cycles, something in which he believes that The fact that the mandate in the rectorate is six years will help in order to act calmly.
He has estimated that the ideal would be for education to be outside the partisan debate and Francisco García has commented that the financing plan model that for the period 2023-2030 by the Canarian government is a necessary step in that direction and that must be completed as soon as possible. possible.
Along with this social pact, he has raised the need for internal unity, and has thanked his predecessor, Rosa Aguilar, for the work carried out in difficult circumstances, and has expressed his commitment to govern without exclusion.
The rector has also referred to the need for a modernization plan after a process of listening and participation to define the most appropriate measures to advance in the transformation of the university.
In statements prior to the institutional act of his inauguration, García said that he assumes the post of rector of the University of La Laguna “with the feeling that we have a lot of work to do”, and that one of the main challenges that they will have to face it is “sustainability in all senses, also economic-financial”.
In this sense, he has indicated that there are “good prospects” and “a program contract proposal with the Government of the Canary Islands on which we want to work.”
“It is essential to look to the future calmly, calmly, to guarantee the public higher education service”, which is, he added, “one of the key variables for many of the challenges that this region has to face”.
The outgoing rector, Rosa Aguilar, has indicated that with today’s act “a new stage begins, with renewed illusions”, and she has been convinced that the University of La Laguna “will once again continue to be an engine of change that The Canary Islands need to be sustainable”.
The President of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, has recognized the work of Rosa Aguilar during her term, in which she has called “with zeal” for the institution “the largest and fairest financing”, as well as an improvement in higher education in the islands.
Torres has guaranteed that “all the institutions” will work “hand in hand” with the new rector “because the Canary Islands need the best training, a clear commitment to innovation and the hallmark and laudable work of the institution.”
Regarding the pact for public universities proposed by the new rector, the president recalled that in recent years there has been a “significant” increase in funding for public education, also for universities, but he acknowledged that there are “issues that we must solve it with adequate and sufficient financing”.
Torres has elaborated that “they have not been easy years for the universities, nor for the one in La Laguna”, and that a group of experts is currently working on a funding framework up to 2030, and in the absence of “some considerations and contributions ” of the two public Canary Islands universities “has made a lot of progress” in this document.
“That is the way, to increase the items in education each year, reach that 5% of GDP, and recognize that the universities have a double task with respect to the Government: on the one hand, education itself, and, on the other, everything that knowledge means, R+D+i, an area more typical of the Ministry of Economy”.
“In this sense”, Torres has advanced, “the maximum effort will be made for the financing that the University of La Laguna demands in this case”.