Consulta pública previa sobre proyecto de real decreto de modificación de normativa sobre creación, reconocimiento y autorización de universidades y centros universitarios

The Spanish university system has undergone a profound transformation in recent years, reaching quality standards comparable to those of the main European countries, with important changes that have guided its modernization, consolidating its value as a key instrument of the progress of Spanish society, but also the evident accelerated proliferation of new university projects promoted, sometimes, by entities with little academic trajectory both teaching and research and, in some cases, authorized despite having unfavorable technical assessments made by the staff of the Public Administration.

In the academic year 2026-2027, private universities already concentrate 29% of the students enrolled in official university studies, and an even greater proportion of places. To this process is being added the rapid expansion of virtual or online teaching models, whose implementation has reached an unprecedented dimension: in the academic year 2026-2027, 27% of Spanish university students study in virtual mode, a proportion that doubles that recorded in countries in our environment such as Great Britain and multiplies by many times that achieved in Germany, France or Italy.

Likewise, insufficient research activity has been corroborated, which is along with teaching a fundamental activity of the university in the developed world, in a significant part of the newly created universities, a particularly worrying circumstance considering that universities generate around 70% of Spanish scientific production and that, between 2021 and 2025, public universities concentrated 95% of the competitive research funds captured by the university system.

This development has raised growing concern about the quality and cohesion of the Spanish university system as a whole, and the continuity of its articulated role in the current democratic period as a powerful mechanism of equal opportunities, and generator of economic and territorial development in Spain. In this regard, we must bear in mind that in the last twenty-five years, 33 new private universities and no public universities have been recognized, until the system is located in 50 public and 49 private universities, with various new projects currently being processed - ten more, all of them private, at this time concretized with their respective memories.

If this trend continues without an update of the regulatory framework, there is a risk that university models will be consolidated that do not respond sufficiently to the teaching and research quality standards that have historically characterized the Spanish university, and that will equip it with the most developed Europe. This could affect not only newly created institutions, but also the prestige, credibility and international competitiveness of the university system as a whole (including both public universities and private universities already established and with a long and fruitful academic career), as well as the confidence of students, families and employers in Spanish university degrees.

Given the problems described, it is necessary to review the current regulation on the creation, recognition and authorization of universities and university centers, contained in Royal Decree 640/2021, of July 27, in order to reinforce the guarantees required for new university projects and ensure homogeneous quality standards throughout the university system. The experience accumulated since the entry into force of this regulation has shown the advisability of updating certain requirements and procedures to adapt them to the current reality of the university system and to the transformations that it has experienced in recent years.

The need for regulatory intervention is pressing. The Spanish university system is immersed in a process of rapid expansion and transformation, characterized by the notable increase in university creation initiatives, the sustained growth of virtual teaching and the growing relevance of ensuring sufficient research activity as a defining element of the university institution. This evolution is taking place at a rate greater than the response capacity of the current regulatory framework, whose instruments have demonstrated limitations to effectively ensure homogeneous quality standards throughout the territory.

The approval of this reform does not allow for delay. If the current regime is maintained, university projects that do not sufficiently demonstrate the academic, teaching, research and institutional sustainability requirements that must characterize a university could continue to be recognized and authorized. This would favor the consolidation of dynamics that, once established, would be extraordinarily difficult to correct, with the consequent risk to the quality of university teaching, the development of research activity, the confidence of students and employers and the national and international prestige of the Spanish university system. On the contrary, immediate regulatory action will make it possible to anticipate these risks, strengthen the credibility of the system and ensure that its future growth takes place on solid foundations of academic, research and institutional quality.

• Strengthen the requirements for the creation, recognition and authorization of universities and university centers, ensuring that only projects that demonstrate adequate academic, teaching, research, economic and institutional solvency access to the system.
• To ensure uniform quality standards throughout the Spanish university system, regardless of the public or private nature of the institutions and the type of teaching provided, whether face-to-face, hybrid and virtual or online.
• Strengthen the research function of universities, ensuring that the research activity constitutes a real and effective element of the university project and not a mere formal requirement, and thus ensuring that the Spanish university continues to develop one of the two essential functions as is the production and transfer of knowledge that contributes to the economic, social and territorial progress of Spain.
• Adapt the regulation to the expansion of virtual teaching, establishing specific requirements to ensure the quality of the degrees taught in this modality.
• Improve the evaluation and verification mechanisms prior to the authorization of new universities, strengthening the role of technical reports and the effective accreditation of compliance with legal requirements, guaranteeing the independence of the agencies that issue them.
• Ensure that universities have a sufficient critical mass of students, professors, resources and infrastructures, which allows them to develop in a sustainable way their functions of teaching, research and knowledge transfer, which are consubstantial to the university fact.
• To preserve the cohesion, credibility and reputation of the Spanish university system, avoiding that the existence of insufficiently consolidated projects affects the confidence of students, families, employers and society as a whole.
• Promote an orderly and sustainable growth of the university system, making the autonomy of institutions and private initiative compatible with the protection of the general interest and the guarantee of the quality of the public service of higher education.
• To strengthen the national and international competitiveness of Spanish universities, ensuring that new institutions contribute effectively to the advancement of knowledge, innovation and academic excellence.
• Prevent the consolidation of structural deficiencies of difficult future correction, through an early regulatory action that allows to anticipate the identified risks and guarantee the balanced development of the university system.

Among the non-regulatory alternatives, the maintenance of the current regulatory framework complemented by recommendations, guides of good practices or coordination mechanisms between administrations and evaluation bodies has been considered. However, these measures lack the necessary legal force to guarantee uniformly compliance with minimum quality standards by new university projects and do not allow the inadequacies detected in the current regulation to be corrected.

The possibility of keeping the regime established in Royal Decree 640/2021, of July 27, unchanged 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 an amendment to the current regulations that updates the requirements and procedures applicable to the creation, recognition and authorization of universities and university centers, strengthening quality guarantees, ensuring a homogeneous application throughout the national territory and allowing to effectively face the challenges posed by the current evolution of the Spanish university system.

The public participation period is open from October 15 to October 30, 2026.

Contributions can be made through the following form.