The president of the Gomera Socialist Group (ASG) Parliamentary Group, Melodie Mendoza, has requested this Friday measures that facilitate access and permanence at the university for young people from non-capital islands, for whom studying a degree may involve moving outside their island and assuming accommodation and maintenance costs.
During the appearance of the rectors of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC) and the University of La Laguna (ULL) in the Commission of Universities, Science and Innovation and Culture of the Parliament of the Canary Islands, Melodie Mendoza gave the situation of La Gomera as an example and asked that the cost of housing not become a barrier to continuing studies. “We are concerned that access to university accommodation has to be affordable access,” he said.
The ASG parliamentarian stressed that responding to this difficulty requires the involvement of different administrations and permanent coordination. In his speech he alluded to the collaboration that is being promoted by the Cabildo of La Gomera to face the problem and to the tools provided for in the new council law, without attributing to the universities alone the responsibility of solving it.
Melodie Mendoza framed this demand in the challenges of the two Canarian public universities and defended a financing model that offers predictability to their management. ASG, he recalled, has been demanding for years a multi-year contract or program that would give greater stability to the planning of both institutions.
“For us it is important that the model ensures the resources allocated to the ordinary functioning of both institutions,” he stated. He added that financing must be accompanied by objectives that contribute to improving the quality of teaching, research and university services.
The president of the ASG Parliamentary Group also pointed out that the adaptation to the Organic Law of the University System and the renewal of staff require sustained measures. In his opinion, the incorporation of professionals, job stability and generational change must have sufficient financial resources so that universities can fulfill the commitments they make.
In terms of research and innovation, Melodie Mendoza valued the contribution of the ULPGC and the ULL and asked to strengthen their relationship with public administrations and productive sectors. Thus, he defended that the knowledge generated can be applied to the economic and social priorities of the Canary Islands and that the talent trained in the universities find opportunities to develop their professional and research careers in the Archipelago, also in the non-capital islands.
He concluded his intervention by pointing out that the administrations with powers in the matter must coordinate to specify short, medium and long-term measures. This work, he maintained, is necessary both to improve access conditions for students and to move towards a solid public university system in the Canary Islands.
