Twenty-seven deans of scientific faculties and directors of polytechnic schools from the universities of Barcelona, Autònoma de Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, Politècnica de Catalunya, and Rovira i Virgili have made public this Thursday a statement in which they demand a sustained educational commitment over time and beyond political cycles.
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The position comes two days after the publication of the PISA 2025 results, which confirmed the decline of Spanish students in reading comprehension, mathematics, and science. In the case of Catalonia, the interpretation of the results is conditioned by sampling problems detected during the test application, which led the OECD to exclude Catalan results from the international comparison. However, the deans consider that the known data and their direct experience with students entering university justify a call for attention.
“The University cannot stand by indifferently to the serious situation the country faces in education
“The University, as an engine of social transformation and a space for the generation and transmission of knowledge, cannot stand by indifferently to the serious situation the country faces in education,” the signatories state.
The diagnosis of the scientific faculties also starts from a reality they observe in university classrooms: the growing difficulties of some students in facing basic content in mathematics, physics, biology, chemistry, geology, or technology. A situation that, they warn, could end up compromising the universities’ ability to train highly qualified professionals in strategic fields.
In this scenario, university leaders consider that educational measures cannot depend on government changes nor be trapped in partisan disputes. They demand a “collective commitment sustained over time” and that education be considered a “first-order strategic infrastructure.”
The pact they propose is not limited to strengthening STEM disciplines. Their diagnosis also includes the progressive loss of study habits, sustained effort, intellectual rigor, and reading comprehension, elements they consider essential for any meaningful learning.
At the same time, the universities claim the role of teachers. The statement recognizes the dedication of compulsory education teachers and the difficulties they face in their work and warns that any educational reform must count on their experience and commitment.
Their diagnosis also includes the progressive loss of study habits, sustained effort, intellectual rigor, and reading comprehension
The call gains special relevance because it comes from the six public universities that concentrate much of Catalonia’s scientific and technological training. The signatories offer to collaborate with the Departament d’Educació i FP, the Parliament, and other institutions to design measures that allow reversing the trend they denounce.
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The background of the university claim goes beyond the results of an international test. The deans place scientific education at the center of some of the major challenges facing Catalonia: the climate emergency, digital transformation, the expansion of artificial intelligence, disinformation, and technological and economic transformation.
In this context, they argue that mathematics, science, and technology should not be understood solely as subjects necessary to access certain degrees. In their view, they are tools to develop critical thinking, logical reasoning, analytical capacity, and problem-solving skills, competencies they also consider essential for democratic life.
“Ensuring quality scientific and mathematical education for all young people is not only an educational responsibility: it is a democratic, social, and economic demand,” they conclude.
The statement thus represents a new call to place education as a matter of state in Catalonia, at a time marked by poor educational results, controversy around PISA, and conflict between the Government and teaching unions. The deans demand that these debates not be addressed in isolation but within a shared and continuous educational strategy.
The faculties are:
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
School of Engineering, Faculty of Biosciences, Faculty of Sciences, University of Barcelona, Faculty of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, Faculty of Chemistry
Universitat de Girona
Faculty of Sciences and Higher Polytechnic School
Universitat de Lleida
Higher Polytechnic School
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
School of Agri-food and Biosystems Engineering of Barcelona, School of Engineering of Barcelona East, School of Telecommunications and Aerospace Engineering of Castelldefels, Higher Polytechnic School of Building of Barcelona, Higher Polytechnic School of Engineering of Manresa, Higher Polytechnic School of Engineering of Vilanova i la Geltrú, Higher School of Industrial, Aerospace and Audiovisual Engineering of Terrassa, Higher Technical School of Architecture of Barcelona, Higher Technical School of Civil Engineering of Barcelona, Higher Technical School of Industrial Engineering of Barcelona, Higher Technical School of Telecommunications Engineering of Barcelona, Faculty of Computer Science of Barcelona, Faculty of Mathematics and Statistics, Faculty of Optics and Optometry of Terrassa.
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Universitat Rovira i Virgili
Higher Technical School of Engineering, Faculty of Chemistry, Faculty of Enology
