Therefore, the Supreme Court considers that there is nothing left to rule on in the Aragonese proceedings. In practical terms, the Aragon Department understands that the outcome is the same as if the Supreme Court had upheld its appeal. This leaves the door open for the three pending private university projects to establish themselves in the region.
Indeed, the lack of justification for processing the decree urgently was also one of the arguments put forward by Aragon. The Supreme Court concluded that the urgency had not been properly justified and that, as a result, the prior public consultation process had been omitted without legal grounds. The ruling did not go so far as to assess the content of the new requirements established by the regulation.
Aragon was not the only region to take the decree to court. In addition to the Balearic Islands, Madrid, Extremadura and La Rioja also filed appeals, along with the Aragonese government. Various university institutions also challenged it, including CEU, Universidad Fernando Pessoa and Universidad de las Hespérides, as well as a joint appeal filed by CIS, Schiller, Saint Louis and Francisco Marroquín.
The Department of Education, Science and Universities considers that the decision supports one of the main arguments used by Aragon against the regulation. In this regard, the Aragonese government says it will continue to defend a university model based “on quality, legal certainty and respect for regional powers,” and calls for any new state regulation to be processed “with all the necessary guarantees and with the participation of the sectors concerned.”
THREE PROJECTS PENDING IN ARAGON
The annulment of the decree is particularly significant in Aragon, where three private university projects remain pending: Niccolò Cusano in Calatayud, ThePower and Uniar, linked to the Grupo Montessori.
The applications had had to be adapted to the new requirements introduced by the state regulations and remained stalled. With the repeal of Royal Decree 905/2025, it will now be necessary to determine how their processing will continue and which regulations apply.
The Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities has already announced, after learning of the ruling, that it is working on new legislation to regulate the creation of universities and intends to process it in compliance with the guarantees required by the Supreme Court.
