Proyecto de Real Decreto por el que se modifica el Real Decreto 822/2021, de 28 de septiembre, por el que se establece la organización de las enseñanzas universitarias y del procedimiento de aseguramiento de su calidad.

Spanish society is immersed in profound changes that largely reflect what happens in almost all developed societies, in which profound transformations are taking place in the economy, labor structures, trade flows, social relations and culture, all of which are closely linked to the rapid scientific and technological advances, with artificial intelligence as the greatest exponent.

These advances generate a plethora of forms of communication and information channeling that are revolutionizing interrelationships in all orders of people’s lives. These disruptive changes are not alien to globalization, which, as a historical process on a global scale, has entered a new phase of acceleration that affects all spheres of society, opening up opportunities, while paradoxically generating new spaces of tension, uncertainty.

These profound transformations are not alien to globalization, which, as a historical process on a global scale, has entered a new phase of acceleration that affects all spheres of society, opening up opportunities, while paradoxically generating new spaces of tension and uncertainty.

The power and speed of these changes directly interpellates the university, as an institution at the service of Spanish society, current and future, which must adapt urgently to them and lead them, so that they return in benefits for the whole of the citizenry.

There are, therefore, several circumstances that merit the need to address a timely reform of Royal Decree 822/2021, of September 28, which establishes the organization of university education and the procedure for ensuring its quality, in order to update it to the social changes that have accelerated over recent years.

The emergence of Artificial Generative Intelligence in university classrooms and the need to establish ethical and deontological limits to its use, the need to reinforce the guarantee of presentiality in those studies that give rise to access to regulated health professions, the need, also, to guarantee the quality of the offer of all undergraduate, master and doctoral degrees, as well as to ensure the quality of the offer in the affiliated centers created by universities throughout the territory (and which have multiplied in recent years), and the urgency of the flexibilization of the organization of teaching, in particular also in the one dedicated to the work of the end of the degree.

Given the aforementioned changes, it is essential to proceed to the approval of a royal decree that modifies, in a timely manner, Royal Decree 822/2021, of September 28, listening to the normative measures requested by the university community as a whole and with respect both to the competence of the State in the matter, in accordance with the provisions of article 149.1.30th of the Spanish Constitution, and with the university autonomy constitutionally guaranteed in article 27.10 of our Fundamental Rule.

Through the measures contemplated in this royal decree, substantial advances will be made in the improvement of teaching quality in order to assure the whole of Spanish society that this quality is a reality in all university degrees, according to the University itself, and significant progress is made in the flexibilization of the teaching organization by providing universities with the capacity to adapt their training offer to these changes and lead them so that they can benefit the whole of the citizenry.

In this sense, this educational institution must have the capacity to fully assume its autonomy and self-government in order, especially, to advance in transforming the way of teaching and learning in the face of a constantly changing society and the challenge of technologies that are intensely disruptive in the access and management of information. To this end, given the speed of the changes that are taking place, and bearing in mind that almost twenty years have passed since the beginning of the implementation of the European Higher Education Area in Spain, which opens a scenario of global assessment of this period and the need for improvements in teaching that takes place in the classrooms, it is urgent to adopt specific measures that facilitate the flexibilization of the organization and management of teaching. This fact is key to the real effectiveness of the adaptation of the contents, competences and skills that are taught in the university classrooms to the new and complex demands of society and the economy, for which it is essential to proceed to the approval of this project of real decree.

• To facilitate the redefinition of the obligatory nature of Final Degree Work, so that each university, in the exercise of its autonomy, can maintain it or direct those resources towards other subjects that it considers important within its plans of studies in order to adapt to the new social, economic and labor demands.
• General principles should be established in the academic use of Generative Artificial Intelligence, both with respect to the activity carried out by teachers and the performance of students.
• In order to make the organization of teaching more flexible, a new delimitation of the substantial and non-substantial modifications of the verification reports of official university degrees must be established.
• To strengthen the guarantee of the quality of official university education, establishing new requirements that all official degrees must meet in relation to the minimum percentages of doctoral and permanent teaching staff and certain categories of teaching staff, in order to ensure the development of teaching and research as essential functions of the Spanish university system.
• Guarantee the quality of the teaching offer of the affiliated centers scattered throughout the national territory, so that this offer is part of the university teaching program of the Autonomous Community of location.
• To establish the face-to-face nature of university degrees that lead to the exercise of regulated professions in the health field, given their training nature and the need to use specific equipment and facilities, to ensure their quality and consistency of training.

Among the non-regulatory alternatives, the maintenance of the current Royal Decree has been considered, complemented with recommendations, guides of good practices or coordination mechanisms between public administrations. However, these measures lack the necessary legal force to guarantee uniformly compliance with minimum quality standards by the university system and its teaching, given the magnitude of the changes it has faced since recent years.

The possibility of maintaining unchanged the regime established in the current Royal Decree 822/2021, of September 28, has also been assessed. However, this option would not allow to respond to the transformations experienced by the university system in the last years described above.

Consequently, the most appropriate alternative is the approval of a specific modification of the aforementioned Royal Decree 822/2021, of 28 September, in order to guarantee compliance with the stated objectives, including in the norm the normative measures requested by the university community as a whole and with respect both to the competence of the State in the matter, in accordance with the provisions of Article 149.1.30th of the Spanish Constitution, and with the university autonomy constitutionally guaranteed in Article 27.10 of our Fundamental Norm.

The public participation period is open from October 22 to November 05, 2026.

Contributions can be made through the following form.