University and precariousness. Origins and consequences of the labour model of the Spanish Public University in the 21st century

Abstract

The implementation of the 2001 Organic Law on Universities and its subsequent reform in 2007 led to a transformation in the employment model for teaching staff at Spanish public universities. Among the main changes were the introduction of temporary positions for access to the teaching career (Teaching Assistants and Assistant Professors), the creation of the position of Associate Professor as a non-civil servant stabilisation route, the creation of new precarious positions such as interim substitute teachers and the creation of a national accreditation system to apply for positions. Two decades after its implementation, the aim of this paper is to analyse the consequences that the last major university reform has had on the employment model for teaching staff in Spanish public universities. To this end, a two-step analysis is hereby proposed by the authors. First, to put the recent changes into context, we reviewed the legislation that has articulated the different employment models for teaching staff up to the present day. Second, using the University Personnel Statistics (EPU), we analyse the process of implementation of the current system in the period 2004-2020. The results show how precariousness, far from being a new phenomenon, has been a constant in Spanish universities. However, the latest reform has led to an advance in the processes of de-functionalisation and more precarious contractual figures, although this process varies substantially between the different universities in the country.