Autonomous Communities. The Catalan University Law (LUC), 2003.

“the contributions of the governing body of the Generalitat have to limit themselves to the university offer that renders itself without business characteristics, in prevision of the liberalisation of this sector within the frame of the negotiations regarding it made by the World Trade Organisation .” (Preambule)

The LUC repeats the LOU in many aspects and goes further into specific areas. For example: the creation and transfer of knowledge to “society” (or rather the companies which will have invested in the research engines or which will have bought the patents), the integration of Catalan universities into the European and international scientific communities and the formation of corporate spirit in the research personnel who have attended these universities.

The parliament of Catalonia approved the law, with votes from CiU and ERC. The PSC-CpC (Catalan Socialist Party – Citizens for Change) and the PP abstained and ICV voted against the whole law, although giving support to part of the article.

2. Components of the EHEA

What were the qualifications like until now?

According to the 1987 Decree any university qualification distinguishes itself by having two stages: the so-called “first cycle” and then the “second cycle”, the first being a general introduction and the second concentrating on optional units which specialise the qualification further. The only allowance made to shared study content in the Spanish state was that between 30% and 20% of the contents of the first and second cycles, respectively, had to be the same, it is called “the trunk”. That is to say, all those graduate of Medicine, History, Law or Social Work had to pursue, forcedly, the same material as any other graduate of those subjects in any other university in the Spanish state.

One Credit: 10 hours of teaching to the student received from a qualified professor.

Average price: 13 euros

Average workload: 300 credits (3,000 hours of teaching)

Estimated week's work: “Would oscillate between twenty and thirty weekly hours, including vocational/practical work, with an academic workload of between 60 and 90 credits per academic year. In no case does the workload of theoretical teaching surpass fifteen hours a week.” (Royal Decree 1987, art.6.1)

A “normal” credit = 10 hours of teaching at 13€ / credit. Each hour with a teacher costs 1.3€

What changes with the Degree Decree?

The decree approved in October 2007 didn't establish any common materials that would guarantee that a Law Graduate from university X would pursue the essential minimum and common studies a Law Graduate from university Y. What it does establish is the obligatory study of 25% of the entire degree in basic knowledge (60 ECTS) common to the five branches of established knowledge. Added to these 60 credits, other elements are established to hollow-out and to progressively reduce the specific contents of each degree. We can't consider external work experience as specific material to be added to the qualification (this is optional but it can be prolonged to an entire academic year), nor the elaboration on behalf of the student of a dissertation (it is work the student develops in his own time and with little cost to the university in terms of teaching time or resources) and we obviously can't accept the recognisation of sporting activities or student representation (up until 6 ECTS) which could be incorporated within the academic record..

European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) “The minimum number of hours, per credit, will be 25, and the maximum, 30” (Royal Decree 125/2003, art. 5)

Average Price: 17.3€ (Under-graduate degree) 22.95€ (Master)

Average Workload: 40 ECTS (6,000 hours of student work), of which 30% of which (1,800 hours) are spent being taught by a professor.

Estimated week's work: “This assignment of credits, and the estimation of its corresponding number of hours, will be understood as referring to a student dedicated to studying full-time during a minimum of 36 and a maximum of 40 weeks per academic course” (Royal Decree 125/2003, art.4)

ECTS Credit = 7.5 hours of teaching at 17.3€ / credit, an hour with a teacher costing 9.5€

Continuing Evaluation

We will not discuss the obvious need for teaching reform here. The student movement has always claimed evaluational flexibility and the consideration of progress and progressive learning adapted to the diversity of interests which students have in their training. This claim has been historically known as “continuing evaluation”. With this denomination they are now trying to name the control of continuing production, one must bear in mind that when the Ministry utters these magical words it is not referring to the same thing that the student movement has referred to for decades. The introduction of individual work as a countable and bill-able element means that measures of standardisation are required, e.g.: pieces of work are measured by their number of works and the hours of preparation, reading, assimilation, critical elaboration, reflection and writing are guessed at so that these credits can be counted. Leaving to one side the barbarities of the standardisation of knowledge and of the processes of learning and the primary school standardisation of these tasks, the action that freeing multiple works during the entire course (which are given an marked individually) and without rating not one progression throughout the whole course is a perversion of continuing evaluation. It is more a case of the Taylorist “just in time”, than a teaching reform. One must also add that, encouraged by clock-watching, this “continuing evaluation” has at last come to be in the planning of the “cycle of learning” (with details regarding the weekly hours and days that must be dedicated to each section of the curriculum) which drown students' initiative and study resources. At the same time it does not respect the fact that the full-time student is a minority, if not a myth, in virtue of the meagre possibilities that a student has to receive a grant which might liberate them from salaried work in order to finance their acquisition of knowledge.

European Grouping

The argument normally given for the Bologna Process (also called “European Convergence”) has been the co-ordination of studies. Nevertheless, the general duration of university studies in the European Higher Education Area is three years and, in Spain, a duration of 4 years has been established. If the implementation of Obligatory Secondary Education has lengthened General Basic Education by two years without adding an improvement in contents, this duration in itself doesn't justify a real comparison of quality and specialisation of the old degrees and those adapted to Bologna. The only factor which allows us to compare the EHEA qualifications is the establishment of a unit of common measure (much like the single currency): the ECTS. Like the Euro, it's given that one euro doesn't have the same value between one European country and another. Bearing in mind the great divergence in infrastructures, public financing and starting points between the states adherent to the EHEA (among others Germany and Switzerland and on the other side Azerbaijan, as an example) it's more than discussible that the content of an ECTS in a “first-class” university might be equivalent to a “second-class” university. On the other hand, the fact that the EHEA is not derived from any European ruling, means that each state has established its own requirements of mutual knowledge for the degrees. In this sense, the Spanish state has left the qualification parity ruling intact and from their additional regulations they have made explicit that the act of admitting a European graduate into a Masters course does not mean that their undergraduate degrees are automatically recognised and accredited. Finally, the degradation of the degree contents has meant that leading countries such as Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom have opted to take out of the general structure the subjects that one can't allow the luxury of leaving without some minimal guarantees (architecture, engineering and law).

The implementation of the reform started from the top: masters and post-graduates. This unusual starting-point can be explained by the fact that it's one of the most profitable sectors and because the elaboration of the studies model that had to substitute the llicenciatures and diplomatures had problems: in 2003 the government presented a catalogue of degrees – which suppressed many language subjects and Art History, amongst others – the mobilisation of the student and teaching bodies caused the shelving of the project and not until October 2007 was the Degree Decree published, leaving these questions to the on hold. The Catalan Generalitat opted from the start for the three-year model and the decision to implant that of four years broke with their plans, Regarding justifying the changes to the public, it's very difficult to sell a 4 year degree as a product of European coordination when in fact the rest of Europe has opted for a 3 year degree. In order to “have it all” the Catalan universities promoted the Minor, a degree that can be obtained in three years. The Minor, which belongs to each university, only has the recognition of the Catalan Generalitat. That is to say: it is not an official qualification which is valid over the Spanish state, but only in Catalonia.

Grants

According to the Royal Decree 1721/2007, regarding the regulation of grants, a grant is “the economic quantity or benefit that is conceded in order that someone starts or continues teachings that lead them to the obtaining of a qualification or official certificate with validity in all the territory of the state, attending to the socio-economic circumstances and the academic use of the applicant”. One deduces, therefore, that neither direct benefit nor the return of the sum is looked for. However, the Spanish government has put into action a loan system in which university graduates will have to return their grant-money to the administration within an established period of time: the “loaned-grant”. Even if the degree disposes of the old grants that were conceded for the entire duration of the llicenciatura, for the post-graduate and master studies they will only give students loans. Furthermore, the non-official masters (which account for 80% of the masters on offer in the two largest Catalan universities) don't include any subsidy system in order to reduce students with limited acquisitive capacity's possibilities of accessing post-graduate studies.

The new university model is based on full-time students who can invest 40 hours a week to their studies. With this premise the possibility of sharing studies with a job is made almost impossible. This wouldn't be problematic if a “grant-salary” system was set up which might permit students to dedicate themselves fully to their studies, but the minimal public spending on grants (which includes the “loaned-grants”) means that this concept becomes truly utopian.

One aspect to bear in mind is the total public spending on grants and aids for university study by the Spanish state, which is far behind other European countries:

Public spending on student grants and aids in the 08-09 teaching year (as % of GDP)

United Kingdom 0.31

OECD average 0.25

Germany 0.22

Spain 0.08

These inequalities in public funding question the ideals of mobility which the LOU and Bologna Process promote.

3. The objectives, instruments and logic of the student movement in comparison to that of the EHEA

Around the analysis of the Bologna Process and its implementation process, criticisms rise up from a sector of society, mostly university students.

These criticisms, being fully constructive, culminate in achievable objectives, a common agreement to which everyone can try to reach. Consequently instruments are used that allow access to the planned objectives.

The objectives of the student movement

Around the reading and analysis of the proposed new educational model certain criticism rise up. The mobilised students are following some objectives, one “where we want to get to”, and we start to work in order to achieve them. First we will describe the why of these objectives and then the why of the instruments which we are using to achieve them.

Inform:

This objective is one of those which never ceases to be important. As much new information is constantly appearing as are people who don't know it or haven't had the possibility to inform themselves.

It's for this reason that the we've built up a human structure of contacts and relationships in order to reach the maximum number of people that this can allow.

Whilst we go about informing it is also possible to defend or criticise the educational model in question and the following objective is reached.

Participation:

This objective focuses on the people who, having been informed, take a critical position in respect to the model since, evidently, to defend the new educational model you don't even need to move as it is being implemented without your consent.

The people who take a critical posture have to make it known and make people listen to them. It is for this reason that more than inform we carry out demands, expressive and/or pressurising actions.

Moratorium and reprisals:

The moratorium is a small step (which is not to say that it's not important) in order to bring about the following objective.

The idea is that society cannot question what educational model it requires if simultaneously an education reform is being imposed without any possibility for informed public debate.

Therefore, in order to play on a level playing field and not have to suffer any kind of repression, we consider it important to paralyse the Bologna Process' implementation, that is to say, paralyse the LOU and, of course, abolish the political reprisals received, until now directed at the students of the UAB, whilst they carried out a non-violent action to claim their demands.

Debate:

Debate is the basic instrument used to design an educational model suitable to the needs of society. It is like this if in said debate the voices of all those who could be affected by the educational model are listened to, that is to say, if the plural and diverse voices of society are listened to.

This generates the educational model suitable to the
needs of society

1.Instruments used to achieve the planned objectives

Moving on from the objectives that the students want to achieve, the ways in which they have taken on their conclusions and organised the movement must be defined. In this way we will establish a definition through chronological order in which the latest mobilisations have occurred, explaining the reasons for which they have acted and how decisions were taken. It is for this that, basing ourselves in the logic of the demands, the general structure of the student movement has been defined, as well as its founding structures:

Assembly Organisation:

The assembly is a form of organisation through which the members of a more or less numerous collective debate determined questions and take decisions regarding them horizontally. The assembly of a collective allows all of the participants the right to express their point of view, promoting in this way the participation of the conforming individuals in the decision-taking process.

Differing from institutional organisations, assembly-ism is not characterised for having a previous ideology which determines its political orientation, but rather it acts according to the consensus arrived upon at the moment of opinion and discussion by the component people. In the case of the student movement it's normal to have one assembly per study discipline or faculty, therefore allowing local actions regarding the matters of the respective university group.

The assemblies which come together are periodical and open to participation, being that their corresponding decisions are taken and brought about with the creation of work groups, commonly known as “commissions”. During the meetings one member takes minutes of the given opinions and the consensus arrived upon and another moderates the debate, ending and limiting the turn-taking according to that day's order of topics.

The principle motives upon which this method of association is based are the fostering of information, participation and debate between the members of the collective and the capacity to include everyone who wants to be part of the decision-making process. It is in this sense that the assembly does not encapsulate itself in the normal organisation of the university institution, from which it does not receive financing and can therefore develop a different logic. Because of this, this kind of organisation is based in the criteria of self-organisation and direct democracy and the cases in which people participating don't have their voices heard are few.

Demonstrations:

During the last few years demonstrations have been called against the application of the Bologna Process all over the Spanish state, these have had varying repercussions according to the case. They have all tried to achieve one clear objective: to show their disagreement with the application of the Organic University Law (LOU).

The method used in these cases is not one used to leading to violent confrontation with the police, although its appearance in the public sphere could be counter-productive. However, given the peaceful behaviour of protesters, the shows of strength on the streets allow forms of massive action with further social repercussions.

The act of taking to the streets to propose the demands of a collaborative collective raises awareness in society, understanding that in this way society might be punctually informed of important problems. Demonstrations, in the long run, are also productive when the time comes to draw together the sufficient social support to legitimate demands. This is given because in the interaction between the agents which participate there a support network is formed regarding questions which affect all those included equally.

In the case of the student movement in the Barcelona area, various demonstrations have occurred criticising the application of the Bologna process. Taking as an example the 6^th March 2008 demonstration, we can see that in a situation of tension with the Mossos d'Esquadra (Autonomous Catalan Police Force), the peaceful end of the demonstration and the reading of the manifesto were prioritised over breaking up the massive show of support in a general dispersal. If, instead, we fix ourselves on the 20^th November 2008 demonstration, we see that apart from being carried out pacifically, the end of this one was much more conclusive in terms of media repercussions, since the occupation of the rectorate of the University of Barcelona had a symbolic social impact. It was for this motive that when it was violently evicted, after a short period there were already thousands of people on the street in a demonstration that was repeated with riots and baton charges that night. Until that fateful day the student movement had been able to unite 10,000 people, however, the 26^th March demonstration to recriminate the police violence and to underline the fact that the plan is being applied not with words but with beatings, attracted a following of about 25,000 people.

Taking over spaces:

The occupations in different faculties have brought about the feeling that taking over areas of the institution creates legitimate spaces for the students. Without taking into account the stopping of classes, the occupation of a faculty as a living place for the collective helps to consolidate friendship links and foster co-operation between those implicated. Besides equipping itself with a kitchen and dormitory, the new students' house offers a space for the organisation of informative and audiovisual chats, workshops and any other activity which the collectives require. In this way the university is opened to all social agents and symbolises a space in which it is possible to participate in the debate regarding the role education is playing in our society.

Self-training regarding the problematic:

On account of being a conflict that affects so much the Public Administration as the European community, the students have found themselves confronting the need to assume a level of institutional knowledge in order to consolidate their basic criticisms regarding the implementation of the European Higher Education Area.

For this reason a lot of information has been gathered on the subject, allowing the students to inform themselves over what could be treated as an excavation of texts regarding the legal application of the process and making out of these a well-founded critical analysis. Simultaneously, alternative proposals to university reform are revised and the university's own possibilities of assuming these.

Collective work:

The students, facing the need to work together, decide to establish a co-ordinating network between the assemblies of different faculties whilst assuring that the autonomy of each one might not be lost. From this the Co-ordinator of Student Assemblies (CAE) was born, which brings together the proposals brought up in assemblies and establishes a consensus from them or, in defect, submits them to a vote, meaning that the resolution of this the resolution of this should go back to the assemblies who have the last say. It is in this way that horizontal power is consolidated in the decision-making process. What's more, the Co-ordinator works thanks to the functioning of its commissions (work groups) which consist of students from the different faculties. These are: communication, diffusion, contents, dynamisation, strategy and international affairs.

From this point the adequate informative and formative material needed to hand out and thus circulate information regarding the demands amongst society has been created: hand-outs, pedagogic leaflets, triptychs, banners, web pages and other other internet resources, etc. Also, a communication network has been set up through the internet with emails and discussion forums for the students. With the circulation of the treated problematic the students want to bring together the support and participation of all of the agents of the university community, that is to say, professors, administrative and service personnel and students.

As far as circulation outside of university establishments is concerned, the mobilised students have found co-ordination with the other educational sectors necessary. With the conviction of devising a collective criticism regarding the current tendency towards dismantling public funding to education, the students are aligning their critical postures to the problems created by the Catalan Education Law (LEC). Consequently, contacts with unions related to secondary education have been created, as has also occurred with social movements conscious to the loss of teacher autonomy and labour precarity brought in by the new law.

Informing civil society:

Achieving the active participation of the citizenry is a fundamental point in the change process of the universities. Looking at it like this, students organise logistics and communication with every strata of society, going out onto the street, entering classrooms and public transport and working with neighbourhood associations.

Informing future university students about the process of adaptation to the European Area is considered basic, therefore a structure of circulation has been constructed based upon the will of students to go to places of secondary education to explain it. At the level of university faculties, one of the most-used instruments consists in entering classrooms and generating debate there, trying to avoid the traditional methods of banner-holding, where the receptor is not given a chance to respond.

On the other hand, the students use all of their creativity to express the message which they want to transmit to the population. It's for this reason that symbolic actions such as satirical street theatre or visual performances in busy places are prepared. On similar lines of action, the students also protect themselves in circulation through the mass media such as television and radio to show their nonconformity, although they are often presented as radical and little-conscious of their actions. One example of this was the appearance of posters illustrating demands during the “campanades” (12 bell strikes at midnight on new year's eve) on TV3 (Catalan television channel) or the roadblocks on the primary accesses to the city.

Form of pressure:

The form of pressure upon the administration which the students dispose of is the same as that used by workers: the strike.

This translates as stopping classes and can therefore be added to the occupation of spaces. From then on the students take advantage of this time to carry out demonstrations or creative actions, above all kinds of action destined to foster reflexive debate on behalf of all regarding the objectives and methods of the movement.

The logic behind the demands:

The student movement which criticises the educational model proposed by Bologna's way of working is the following: an objective in generated and the instrument which will serve to accomplish it is thought upon. This instrument goes on to become a new objective and from that new methods of arriving there are generated.

The trajectory starts with the information. The students' logic is that this is the basis upon which one might analyse the implementation of the new plan and be able to evaluate it correctly and be able to make opinions regarding its virtues or deficiencies.

With the training received from the treatment of the obtained information, certain people begin to carry out in respect to what (the content itself of the new educational model) and to how (the way in which this content is being imposed).

These actions work towards achieving a moratorium of the process.

The moratorium serves as a break in which a debate might be carried out, a dialogue in which all of those implicated can participate.

From this debate the educational model that society believes to be better linked to itself will be born.

We believe that only through an open, transparent and accessible debate including all the members of the university community can a foundation upon which the construction of a university that society wants and needs be demanded.

The logic of the European Higher Education Area:

The politics which designed the new higher educational model's way of doing things is the following: An objective is generated and the instrument which will serve to accomplish it is thought upon. What occurs is that there is only one objective and, therefore, only one instrument. This can be done holding such a notion of society as does the media to bring it about.

The objective is for the education model to be linked to the society of constant change. This has been expressed by the Bologna Declaration and by the following declarations.

The second step is to implement these intentions through formal channels, that is to say, through the legislative systems of different states.

The primary difference observed between these two logics is that they hold different conceptions of society. For the European Higher Education Area the educational system has to bind itself to the needs of a changing society, which in reality is determined by the market. For the students, the educational system has to bind itself to a changing society, but the nature of this society is yet to be defined, as it has to be the determined human group whose needs do not coincide with the needs of the capitalist market.

Following these lines, there is a totally polarising aspect in respect to each of these logics: information. And not so much how the information is transmitted but rather the tie which is desired between this and the people.

The students' logic is that information is the basis which has to be completely bound to the people. It is for this reason that their model starts with information. The idea is that the political action, in this case the decision of the educational model that the changing society is asking for, has to come preceded by a fundamental position in this respect. This will be given after analysis and reflection upon the actions which make up this political action, which can only be produced if information is available. Information is regarded as the fuel which allows and legitimises political action.

The logic of the European Higher Education Area in respect to information is something else. Information is not deemed necessary at the time of carrying out a political action (in this case the decision of educational model that the changing society is asking for) in part because the decision is taken by a reduced group of representatives. How can we affirm this in respect to information? This is affirmed upon observing that the university community doesn't know full well what the Bologna Process is, and from observing that they know even less how the LOU affects them directly. Consequently, the community does not see clearly over what it has to position itself for or against. The university community and society in general therefore put themselves in a position where they have to wait for the effect (positive or negative) in order to know if this educational model suits them or not.

4. What have we achieved until now?

Sometimes when you are living in an active process you don't have time to make a relevant reflection in order to see which objectives you've achieved and which you still have to fulfil. This section wishes to show the fruits of the collective mobilisation, some little victories – on the road to the final objective – which are worth recalling:

In the merely internal field:
Since the week of struggle carried out from the 16^th to 20^th November, and the faculty occupations that have occurred since then, the following of changes have been produced in the internal functioning of student assemblies. The quantitative and qualitative rise of the faculty assemblies is the point from which the student movement advances. The rise in consciousness in active participation as a form of questioning that established which we don't like has managed to convert the critical spirit accumulated by many students into clear proposals for constructing a new university. The tendency until now had been to simply say no, and it has reconverted itself in constructive criticism which has left many of those who stand against our way of functioning without argument, their nervousness has shown us that we're on the right path. This meant that the assembly dynamics are more and more solid and we have even moved them into the sphere of institutional organs that before now had no clear idea what assembly organisation meant and why we were organising ourselves horizontally.

Some key concepts that should be remarked on at this point would be the empowerment exercised upon occupying symbolic spaces in order to recuperate the power that we had ceded to the university and administrative hierarchy. Since the occupations, our discourse has been given a quantum leap, thanks in part to the 'parallel university' in which on many occasions those who are part of the struggle are living. Understand that at the same time that representative democracy doesn't represent anyone and, therefore, the questioning of this kind of democracy has achieved that many of its defenders have abandoned it for the failure that it has demonstrated and have understood that politics starts with oneself and that the necessary mechanisms have to be adopted in order that they listen to your voice, without intermediaries or hierarchical structures which only blur and dilute man's power. We concede this power unconsciously, until it dawns on us that the road we are on is not the one we want and as such we have to act. Resistance is difficult but necessary and from this substantial results have been generated.

In the institutional sphere:
The institutional reality is showing us the hypocrisy that reigns in its daily normality. After more than 8 years opposing the Bologna Process, the speculation of the first years has become reality, and people have seen with their own eyes how many of their fears were not just possible, but real. Facing this fact, and with the previously cited empowerment, our criticism has caused many of the responsible people to become nervous to the point of persuading public opinion with little pieces such as: (in Catalonia) the National Table for Public University (Taula Nacional per la Universitat Pública), (in Spain) a laughable rise in grants and (in Europe) with some European Commissions questioning the way Spain is applying the Bologna Process. It's fun when you see that until now everything was perfect, the implementation was following the optimal parametres for its application in a way which would leave no doubts, and suddenly critical voices made themselves heard and it turns out that in many of the subjects we touch upon they concede that we're right... How machiavelic to defend something which has been done by inertia without making a previous diagnosis or a projection of how the reform will affect society. We can affirm, therefore, that we are writing the institutional political agenda. The declarations of intentions which go hand in hand with the rise in state university budgets are a good example of this. However, this rise is not significant at all and we can consider it ridiculous. These are placebos used to submit us to a knowledge marked by the market closing down criticisms. Therefore, it opens the door to a thinking that, if there have already been advances, increasing our mobilisations we can change, rather than reform.

Some examples which we have to reaffirm in our work are the referendums celebrated in the Catalan public universities where in every case the 'paralysation of the process of the implementation of the EHEA and the opening of a process of debate regarding public university' has won the position of the majority – the referendum of the University of Barcelona (UB) with more than 18% of student participation obtained a result of 93%, neither more nor less than 9,732 students, demanding the paralysation of the EHEA's implementation process. It's interesting, to bring out the arguments that some official media have tried to insert into public opinion, to see how in the rectorate elections the participation was 11.6% (5.6% of the census of the entire university community supported the candidature of the current rector of the UB, Dídac Ramírez, with 3527 votes), and in the elections for student representatives not even 5% was achieved. To understand participatory democracy as the only way which allows one to know what the involved agents in a reform imposed by higher spheres think is a good starting point for understanding that established things can change, we only need to work to achieve it.

In the Educational sphere:

There are many positive points in this sphere but that which we will underline for the change that it shows from past struggles is the building of bridges which have been created so that the university community (professors, administration and service personnel and students) can channel its discontent. In a university marked by institutional order, the struggle had often stayed inside the same community instead of pointing out that the problem affects everyone equally and therefore it was absurd to lose time criticising the internal positions and that what we had to do was go all for one in order to defend the rights that they want to turn into privileges. This would be the first point inside the university community.

The other point to underline is the fact that we have left university co-operativism in order to focus on the education problem in an integral manner, that is to say, to understand that the problematic of the education model is not an isolated university issue, but rather that the tendency is to convert learning into a business deal submitted to mercantilist parametres and, above all, convert students into subjects submitted to the system without the ability to criticise it. With pedagogic methods reminiscent of Francoist times which we will only be able to eliminate if we build amongst all of us an educative model with and for society. To understand that the LOU and the LEC are two faces of the same coin helps us to resist the neoliberal offensive which tendentiously penetrates into a sphere as significant as education. For the moment we have been able to open social debate outside of the university and this is a point of vital importance. We want to participate in a new educational model which keeps watch for a social education. The education in a country says a lot about the people that live there.

In the social sphere:

One of the most emblematic moments lived through in the rectorate of the UB was when an assembly of more than 900 TMB (Metropolitan Transport of Barcelona) workers was held in the historic building of the same university. This action symbolised the conception that the mobilised students have of the university, a place in which knowledge, learning and daily social practice converge to improve the current social structure. For many of us, to conceive of a union between workers and students was a step forward towards the formulation of our own discourse. Since this occurrence we have given the occupied spaces over to different activities: assemblies, reunions, chats, acts, concerts, etc. so that people might understand that the university space is a public space that has to give coverage to all of the collectives and organised social movements in order to analyse and/or change the established order. The essence of the university as a critical space where there is room for all voices, it's been a while since it lost this reason for being, naming minorities as species which should disappear, using politically correct discourse which goes against the majority. We believe that the majority are represented in the collectives which are organised horizontally, which demand their capacity to influence and decide rather than just being the passive agents which they wanted to believe we were. In order to achieve these objectives we've used a clear strategy starting from the neighbourhood networks, to bring to the colleges and secondary schools, to the civic centres, to the self-organised social centres, to the differently-natured neighbourhood collectives our discussion: because the changes being produced in the university affect us all, because the social function of this has to change not to where the Bologna Process is heading but rather towards a road where that most important might be cohesion and social well-being, exercising the social compromise which the university has towards society. We have started to recuperate the critical spirit of the university in order to change its social, educational, political, cultural, symbolic and economic functions which we live through and suffer from.

THEREFORE, EVEN WITH THESE LITTLE VICTORIES, WE MUST CONTINUE FIGHTING IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE A REAL CHANGE WHICH MIGHT CONFORM TO THE WILL OF ALL OF THE EXISTING VOICES!!!

5. Curiousities: Did you know that..?

● For questioning the EHEA and for defending a truly public university a brutal repression and criminalisation of the student movement has been carried out using a ruling from 1954, that is to say, from the era in which Francoism purged the universities. Furthermore, since Francoism the police had not entered into a university, the first time during “democracy” was the 4^th March 2008 in the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). On the 12^th February 2009 the same thing happened in Pompeu Fabra University (UPF). The normalisation of these actions means an undemocratic backwards step unsuited to a critical and public university.