PROPOSITION OF
STATEMENT
FOR
A PUBLIC UNIVERSITY
IN
THE FRAMEWORK OF THE EUROPEAN HIGHER EDUCATION AREA
NO
CONVERGENCE WITHOUT FINANCE
The
capitalist neoliberal project for Europe only envisages its formal,
nominal convergence in market terms excluding the perspective of a real
convergence in terms of social cohesion. This has produced serious
social and territorial inequalities in the framework of a European
Union with a single currency but a profound social and economic
heterogeneity. In this context the construction project of the EUPV
(United Left of the Valencian Country) proposes a real convergence
process with a number of demands such as a European tax system, a
European minimum salary and a European Social Charter that really
guarantees social rights. Our proposal also requires a real convergence
process in Higher Education. But this process cannot be limited to a
formal unification of the cycles of Higher Education and a single unit
of measure of Higher Education, it also requires the provision of the
means to implement this:
- It
is necessary to increase the number of teaching staff and to assure
that they are adequately trained to permit an active pedagogy based on
the protagonism and participation of the students, the only way to
achieve student centred learning.
- It
is necessary to establish a generalized system of salary-grants and
income loans to make a reality of the figure of the full-time student
and comply with the "social dimension" of the Bologna Process so that
students can complete their graduate and postgraduate studies "without
obstacles related to their social and economic background". This is the
only way to assure social differences are not perpetuated or
exacerbated.
The whole
process requires European public universities that do not seek
"competitiveness" so much as quality and cooperation with the rest of
the world, which are not subordinated to the narrow, short-sighted
demands of the market but which seek to form creative, critically
minded citizens with a high level of cultural and professional
education, which is the only way to promote sustainable development.
All of this
requires a considerable increase in the public funding of universities.
We are convinced that without a convergence in funding there is no
possibility of real convergence and so we demand a system of stable
public funding in order to advance towards a a Critical Public
University of Quality in the framework of an authentic European Higher
Education Area.
Subarea of
University and Research of EUPV
19
december 2005