2023-09-18 06:08:31
He begins the new year with some nostalgia but facing his last months at the head of the University of León with the same energy with which he began in 2016. Juan Francisco García Marín will attend the opening ceremony of the year next Tuesday for the last time as rector academic. The push for the demand to create a Faculty of Medicine will mark his farewell speech, in which there will be a brief summary of everything done in these seven years. Leonoticias addresses with the rector the present and future of an institution whose challenges include supporting its doctors, creating reference research institutes and continuing to grow hand in hand with the province.
How is the new course presented?
Normally, and let’s hope it continues like other years. There has been an increase in new students and the degrees that we have incorporated in my time as rector of Podiatry and Human Nutrition and Dietetics or that of Data Engineering and Artificial Intelligence are being a success in demand, they have been filled and we are very happy in that sense. In other classic grades like Minas we are having more problems. As much as we say that there is demand for these graduates and more activity for professionals than ten years ago, it is difficult to change the mentality.
At the national level, the course began marked by the topic of messages from a group of very unfortunate students from La Rioja
Some comments totally out of place. I always say that these cases are a problem of education. There will always be someone who crosses the line and that cannot be done in any way, it cannot be allowed. I think they are going to take measures, they have to be taken.
And are the protocols for hazing at the ULE working?
It is regulated. Now hazing is done in a different way, society has changed, but you can’t prevent it from happening sometimes and that’s what we try to avoid. In general, the last few years have gone well and this course does not have to be any other way.
On Tuesday he presides over the opening ceremony of the university course. Last year he announced that he would apply for medical school, will he do it again?
We always claim. Last year was the first time that we said publicly and before the counselor that we were going to ask for the degree and this year that President Fernández Mañueco is attending we will do it again. We will continue to insist as we have done all year, sending reports and all the documentation they have requested. The Board knows it very well.
The truth is that there has not been much support from the Board in these twelve months to create the degree
I do not understand this reluctance to open a Faculty of Medicine while opening a Faculty of Pharmacy at a private university in Castilla y León. It is an issue that sooner or later, given the current situation of places at the national level, will have to be resolved. You cannot continue increasing the number of students entering the faculties that already exist. If a grade was designed for one hundred students, how can it now have 200? They will have to opt for other solutions, that is why we ask for the faculty.
And what does that reluctance respond to?
I don’t know, I guess money first. Setting up a medical school requires buildings, facilities… the BOE states that the students who cost the most per degree are Veterinary Medicine and Medicine. Of course it costs but we already have some facilities such as the Hospital or primary care. Now the land has to be developed for the faculty. We proposed the San Antonio building but it is a problem because it is protected, and we made a project to build a building on the campus itself.
What would it mean for León to have Medicine?
It is a degree that has the social connotations that it has. We are working together with the Board to install a biosanitary research institute of excellence like there is in Salamanca or Valladolid endorsed by the Carlos III Foundation of Madrid. In León we have biotechnology, all degrees related to the health area, research institutes… but if there is a Faculty of Medicine, there is greater potential to be able to develop this project very well, which would directly and indirectly increase work, means and the staff of the University of León and the province.
A protest has been announced precisely by the Administration and Services workforce for this Tuesday, they say they feel discriminated against
Several things they say are not true. They talk about an agreement that has not been carried out. Among other things, they ask for a six-year period of training. The universities said that in those six years there would have to be 120 hours of training. They said 20 and I said it didn’t happen that way. It has been lowered to 40 or 50 hours and they are not moving. That’s a lot? Regarding the discrimination they feel towards civil servants, they also do not talk about the compensation that workers have in the retirement bonus, which is more generous than that of civil servants. Of course there is a difference, but a balance must be made. Furthermore, it would be necessary to see if this protest is representative, because there are more than 300 PAS and in the union elections there has been a 10% vote or so. I will answer them where I have to answer them, in the governing council, at the negotiating tables and in the faculty.
How do you face your last year as rector?
I face the last few months the same as until now, I don’t relax. One of the most positive assessments that I make is the internal promotions that have occurred and in terms of teaching staff, we have resolved one of the most delicate situations that we encountered, which is the issue of retirements. We have bridged the gap with promotion for doctoral assistant professors, we have increased aid to research teams to improve conditions, and well-prepared young people have joined the university. Predoctoral contracts have been created, the number of professors has increased, 200 positions for doctoral assistants have been created and calls have been made for excellent teaching staff. International projects have also multiplied, we went from talking about 100,000 euros in 2015 to talking about millions.
In infrastructure we have renovated all the buildings, we have already put out to tender the new multipurpose center and student house whose works will begin shortly. The Ponferrada campus is completely renovated. On a personal level, I highlight the research transfer office, which the University has opened to companies with many agreements. They seem like small things but in the end they make the budget of the University of León go from 90 million to 125 million these years.
What’s left in your pipeline?
I would have liked the research institute that opened agri-food companies to have come to fruition. And also that we would have been able to attract not only young people but also more senior researchers. But more or less everything that I was proposing, such as the accreditations of all the faculties, has been achieved.
Will the ULE have an ‘Honoris Causa’ woman with you as rector as promised?
Safely. If it is not there yet, it is my fault that we have fallen behind on administration issues. But there -he points to his table- is his file. We have known this for a year and it is certain.
What needs to be done so that young people want to pursue a career in university?
They always see him very black. Those who get scholarships for a predoctoral contract are the best. And they have contracts of 1,000 or 1,100 euros. This can not be. When he was in León, Minister Subirats talked about it. The ministries of Science and Universities are separate and it depends on both of them. Maybe in León a doctoral student can live on a thousand euros but not in Madrid or Barcelona. In recent years it has increased and the fourth year of the scholarship they receive 1,400, that has been the entire achievement. Of course it is something vocational, but people have to live and this cannot be like that. The journey from intern to having a stable position is very long, I did it, but you have to see the light a little at the end, and you have to put in place tools to make it happen.
Now the challenge is in the controversial University Law
We agree that changes must be made, the types of teachers adapted. This process alone in the ULE costs more than three million euros and where is the money? They say that it will progressively be incorporated into 1% of GDP but we have no news even for this year. We are in business as usual, we must make changes but how are we going to do it if it costs that money? Furthermore, the Board and the State do not agree on whether that one percent is regional or state, and in the end we are in the middle.
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