The Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities has opened for prior public consultation the draft royal decree modifying the regulations on the creation, recognition and authorization of universities and university centers, with requirements that will be the same as those included in the regulation approved last year and then overturned by the Supreme Court, according to sources from the department informed Europa Press.
The team led by Diana Morant has thus initiated the procedures to re-approve a regulation that tightens the conditions for the creation of universities, after the high court annulled the previous text due to "lack of justification in its urgent processing".
Public consultation open until October 30, 2026
The public participation period for the new royal decree on the creation, recognition and authorization of universities is open from October 15 to October 30, 2026, in a procedure that, according to the document disseminated by the Ministry, seeks to gather the opinion of citizens, organizations and associations before the elaboration of the norm.
In its ruling, to which Europa Press has had access, the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the Supreme Court annulled the royal decree on universities by upholding an appeal from the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands and imposed costs on the General State Administration in the amount of 6,000 euros.
The court concluded that the agreement for the urgent processing of the elaboration and approval procedure "is not duly justified" and added that its effect, by omitting the prior consultation procedure, "lacked the legally required protection".
The Government defends that there is a risk to the quality of the university system
In the document published to promote the new prior consultation, the Government maintains that "there is a risk that university models that do not sufficiently respond to the teaching and research quality standards that have historically characterized Spanish universities will be consolidated", and that place it, it adds, at the level of the most developed Europe.
The Executive warns that this situation could affect not only newly created institutions, but also the prestige, credibility and international competitiveness of the university system as a whole, including both public universities and already consolidated private universities, as well as the trust of students, families and employers in Spanish university degrees.
Therefore, the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities considers it "necessary" to review the current regulation on the creation, recognition and authorization of universities and university centers, contained in Royal Decree 640/2021, of July 27, "in order to reinforce the guarantees required for new university projects and ensure homogeneous quality standards throughout the university system".
The department led by Diana Morant adds that the experience accumulated since the entry into force of that norm "has revealed the convenience of updating certain requirements and procedures to adapt them to the current reality of the university system and to the transformations it has undergone in recent years".
The requirements that the Executive wants to re-approve
According to the Government's approach, "the need for regulatory intervention is urgent", because the Spanish university system is in a process of rapid expansion and transformation, marked by the increase in initiatives for the creation of universities, the sustained growth of virtual education and the greater relevance of guaranteeing sufficient research activity as a defining feature of the university institution.
The Ministry also maintains that this evolution is advancing "at a faster pace than the response capacity of the current regulatory framework", whose instruments, it stresses, have shown limitations to effectively ensure homogeneous quality standards throughout the territory.
In this context, the Government states that the approval of the norm "cannot be delayed", since, in its opinion, if the current regime is maintained, university projects that do not sufficiently accredit the academic, teaching, research and institutional sustainability requirements that should characterize a university could continue to be recognized and authorized.
Among the changes that the royal decree already approved a year ago and now annulled by the Supreme Court included, were the following:
- The requirement of a critical mass of 4,500 students for universities.
- The reinforcement of guarantees of economic solvency, through a bank guarantee or other similar legal instrument that accredited the availability of sufficient resources.
- A mandatory and binding evaluation report prepared by the National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation (ANECA) or by equivalent regional agencies, in addition to the report from the General Conference of University Policy.
- That the recognition of online universities should be approved by the Cortes Generales and have a binding report from ANECA.
- The obligation to incorporate in the project's memory the commitment to have, after three years of operation, a number of accommodation places equivalent to 10% of the students.
- The requirement to dedicate 5% of the budget to promoting research and that 50% of the teaching staff be doctors, with 60% of those doctors having a positive evaluation and at least one six-year research period.
The Government defends that immediate regulatory action will allow anticipating these risks, reinforcing the credibility of the system and ensuring that its future growth occurs on solid bases of academic, research and institutional quality.
