It was during the General Conference on University Policy that the director-general referred, during the questions and requests session, to the decision announced last July by the Ministry of Health to withdraw the extraordinary funding allocated to increasing Medicine degree places. The measure affects the 20 additional first-year public places introduced at the University of Zaragoza —as well as the five third-year places in Huesca— which had received state funding over the past three academic years.
Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Universities Juan Cruz Cigudosa did not answer the question and invited the Department of Education to submit it in writing. As a result, a letter outlining Aragón’s demands was sent this Friday, and the region is now awaiting a response.
A NEED TO TRAIN MORE DOCTORS
Feijóo questioned the “sustainability of continuing to expand the number of Medicine places without stable and sufficient funding to guarantee their continuity”, particularly given, she recalled, the absolute national consensus on the need to train more doctors to ensure the sustainability of the public healthcare system at a time when thousands of citizens are suffering the consequences of staff shortages and the medical profession itself has been denouncing the structural shortage of doctors for months.
If funding for these places has not been reconsidered, the head of Universities at the Aragón Government said, the region will ask the ministry headed by Diana Morant to introduce “some compensatory measure” to prevent the autonomous communities from having to bear the cost of these places, which have already been offered and in which students are enrolled. As she recalled, the announcement was made when the admissions and enrolment process for the academic year beginning next Monday was already virtually complete.
María Luisa Feijóo also had the Aragón Government’s request entered into the minutes for the launch of “a stable funding programme for studies in the healthcare field”, particularly Medicine and Nursing degrees, to respond to increased demand, expand the number of places and reduce the pressure on public universities.
FUNDING GUARANTEE
Despite the cut implemented by the ministry, the Aragón Government has guaranteed that all students enrolled at the University of Zaragoza will be able to pursue their studies normally, since the regional executive itself has assumed the full cost resulting from a decision adopted by the Ministry of Health, in order to prevent students and the University of Zaragoza from bearing the consequences of this failure by the Spanish Government.
The Aragón Government remains firmly committed to strengthening public medical training and has driven a significant increase in the number of Medicine degree places, with an expansion at the University of Zaragoza and the introduction of the full Medicine degree at the Huesca campus, as well as new programmes at the Teruel campus. These and other measures by the Aragón Government aim to train more professionals and help alleviate the shortage of doctors affecting the entire country.
