Relación entre gasto y calidad en las universidades

Abstract

Up until now in Spain, it was not possible to relate the quality of universities to the cost they
involve. At last, in 2002, it is possible to calculate these two variables thanks to the publication
of data collected by the National Statistics Institute and the CRUE (Spanish Universities
Vice-Chancellor’s Conference). The close relationship between quality and cost shown by the
data included here makes it necessary to re-examine the relationship between resources and
results, and even presumed university autonomy. Bearing in mind that they are different variables,
and are calculated independently, the relationship is even more striking. However, there are
universities that —relatively speaking— escape from such a causal relationship, which makes it
possible to assess the importance of variables of context and functioning. Missing from the
Sociology of Organizations are serious studies of the university in Spain. With the new Universities
Act (6/2001) and the Entitlement/Access decree (744/2002), the Spanish university system
(92% public and 8% private) is undergoing a greater transformation than sociologists imagine.
The information in this research paper summarizes around one hundred variables already analysed
in the study entitled Excelencia: Calidad de las universidades españolas (Excellence: The quality of
Spanish universities) (published by the CIS in 2001) and thousands of specific facts about
public and private universities. Spanish universities are, for the first time, assessed in terms
of their productivity and quality, and a diversity which means increasing competition for the
best students, teachers/professors and university personnel is observed. This data also makes it
possible to progress in an important discussion of the possibility of creating in Spain a model of
university-research centre that is competitive at an international level. Unfortunately, such a
change is occurring in the middle of a process of university decentralization, and so the design of
these (few) international universities-research centres devolves upon the seventeen autonomous
regional communities.