"The university does not necessarily change by establishing laws. They are almost always the real brake"
Miguel Ángel Escotet, the president of Afundación -the Abanca foundation that is promoting the project for the first private center of university studies in Galicia, argues that the university "does not necessarily change by the establishment of laws and decrees", but that these norms are "almost always" the "real brake on change, innovation, research".
The Government's plan to limit the business of private universities compromises the academic project of Abanca
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In an article published this Saturday, November 28, on his blog, Escotet maintains that changes are "difficult to produce" without financial and technological resources, but more obstacles are added "when the will does not exist or when pessimism is ahead of action or when changes occur that respond more to whim or intuition than to an objective assessment of achievements and needs ".
In rich countries, he adds, the abundance of means "does not guarantee the permanent transformation of the university." That guarantee is "in the people" and in their "commitment to change."
Miguel Ángel Escotet is in charge of the foundation heir to the social work of the extinct Galician savings banks, converted into a bank -Novagalicia-. This entity was sold by the State at the end of 2013 to the Venezuelan banker Juan Carlos Escotet, owner of Banesco and who had already acquired the Galician Banco Etcheverría. The entity was renamed Abanca and is now promoting the creation of the first private university in Galicia through this foundation. The Royal Decree that the central government finalizes for this area complicates the materialization of the academic center.
