ShareConsiderations of the Governing Council of AQU Catalunya on the draft Royal Decree regulating the procedure for the accreditation of permanent employment-based faculty by ANECA
Approved by the Governing Council of AQU Catalunya at the meeting on July 22, 2025, they have been sent to the Minister of Science, Innovation, and Universities for consideration.
Context
With the approval of Organic Law 6/2001, of December 21, on universities, the possibility of employment-based contracts for permanent teaching and research staff at public universities was introduced. Catalonia was the first autonomous community to implement this regulatory framework through Law 1/2003, of February 19, on universities, creating two categories of employment-based staff:
- Associate professors, the first stage of the permanent position.
- Full professors, the promotion position.
For 22 years, through the Research Evaluation Commission, the Agency for the Quality of the Catalan University System (AQU Catalunya) has helped consolidate this employment-based pathway, which has contributed to the recognized research standing of the Catalan university system. From 2021 to the present, some autonomous communities have promoted the employment-based pathway, but only Catalonia and the Basque Country have implemented the promotion position.
Organic Law 2/2023, of March 22, on the university system (LOSU) maintains the dual access routes—civil servant and employment-based—for teaching and research staff. The accreditation of employment-based teaching and research staff is regulated in Article 85, which establishes that “[...] access to permanent employment-based faculty positions and their promotion will require prior accreditation, in accordance with the regulations of the autonomous community,” and also states that “quality agencies, within the scope of the powers granted to them by state regulations and by the respective autonomous communities, will work on common minimum criteria regarding the accreditation of permanent employment-based faculty.”
On February 20, 2024, through the Spanish Network of Quality Agencies (REACU), the quality agencies agreed on common minimum criteria for the initial category of permanent employment-based faculty, that is, associate professors, while excluding the promotion figure (full professors). Therefore, the Research Evaluation Commission of AQU Catalunya developed and approved on January 20, 2025, the new accreditation criteria for associate and full professor faculty, adapted to the requirements of the LOSU, which came into effect on April 1, 2025.
Draft Royal Decree regulating permanent employment-based faculty
At the end of May 2025, AQU Catalunya became aware of the draft Royal Decree regulating the procedure for the accreditation of permanent employment-based faculty by the National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation (ANECA), which consists of six articles with the following main purposes:
- To implement, for the first time, the promotion figure of permanent employment-based faculty (full professor faculty), which until now ANECA had not carried out, as it only issued accreditations for contracted doctor faculty (equivalent to associate professors faculty).
- To standardize and effectively equate the accreditations for employment-based and civil servant faculty issued by ANECA. The proposed procedure allows individuals, with a single application, to obtain two accreditations for two different contractual routes.
Following the instructions of the Department of Research and Universities, on June 10, 2025, the Agency, after analyzing the draft Royal Decree, sent its comments to the Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities and informed the Governing Council.
Being aware of the possible approval of the Royal Decree in the established terms, the Governing Council of AQU Catalunya expresses its concern regarding the current draft and its potential impact on the Catalan university system. For this reason, it presents the following considerations:
Considerations
First
The Governing Council of AQU Catalunya considers it necessary to point out that, according to Article 85 of Organic Law 2/2023, of March 22, on the university system, it is the responsibility of the autonomous communities to regulate the accreditation procedure for permanent employment-based faculty. For this reason, the draft Royal Decree regulating the procedure for the accreditation of permanent employment-based faculty by the National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation (ANECA) must explicitly establish that accreditations for permanent employment-based faculty issued by ANECA are valid exclusively for universities in autonomous communities that either do not have their own quality agency or have autonomous community regulations providing for it.
Second
The Governing Council of AQU Catalunya considers it necessary to maintain the separation and differentiation between the accreditation procedures and criteria for civil servant faculty and those for permanent employment-based faculty. It is deemed essential to preserve the principle of self-limitation of basic legislation, since, according to constitutional jurisprudence, basic legislation cannot be emptied of content through overly detailed and specific regulations. Regulatory detail must remain the responsibility of each autonomous community, in accordance with the needs and vision of its universities and respective university systems.
Third
The Governing Council of AQU Catalunya considers it necessary that, given the state-wide validity of accreditations issued by ANECA, the issuance of accreditations for the promotion figure (full professors) be made conditional on the establishment of common minimum criteria for this figure by the autonomous quality agencies that, under the applicable regulatory framework, were already issuing accreditations for promotion-based employment faculty or plan to do so.