NEWS Something rotten in the state of Spain, say whistleblowers will not come to court until summer MY by former Vigo dean Jesús Vázquez A Critics condemn culture of cronyism and 2014. AL Abad. corruption in the academy. Paul Jump reports In the meantime, he is entitled to In October, Astray’s name topped neither salary nor unemployment a list of Vigo students eligible for an As Spain struggles under the weight to have been subjected by the benefit, he says. “excellence award” for the best PhD of unsustainable borrowing costs University of Murcia after he went “This is how justice functions in thesis of 2011. After pressure from and an unemployment rate touch­ to court in 2007 to obtain a chair Spain,” he told THE. “Nobody but the international media and scien­ ing 25 per cent, its higher education in education that he says had been a judge can alter the decision of a tists, the university removed his sector has not escaped the turmoil. earmarked for a less­qualified rector, and my case will not be heard candidature on the eve of awarding Academic salaries have been cut academic who was a friend of until more than two years after the the prize. several times and the country’s Murcia’s rector, José Antonio events occurred.” The dean of Vigo’s Faculty of science budget has been slashed by Cobacho Gómez. The university did not respond Sciences, Pedro Antonio Araujo nearly 25 per cent. The government Penalva was sacked for alleged to a request for comment. Nespereira – a former PhD student has also set up a committee to absenteeism shortly after the book Stories also abound of alleged of Mejuto – told THE that the consider reforming Spain’s univer­ was published. He is challenging the financial misconduct by senior offi­ retracted articles were irrelevant to sities, only one of which – Pompeu dismissal in court, but expects the cials in Spanish universities. One the judging of the excellence prize. Fabra University in Barcelona – case to drag on for some time. example, reported by Spanish news­ He also insists that they appears in the top 200 of the latest A Murcia spokesman denies that papers in February, concerns the had formed no part of Astray’s Times Higher Education World the disciplinary action had anything former rector of the Complutense thesis. University Rankings. to do with the book. University of Madrid, Carlos Araujo says that Vigo’s original But while the committee is Berzosa Alonso­Martínez. investigative committee performed expected to focus on structural Touching a nerve He was accused by his local a “rigorous analysis” of the issues such as funding and auton­ Since publishing Corruption in the authority of “grave irregularities” plagiarism allegations, and he notes omy, many critics claim that the University, Penalva has been con­ over the construction of houses and that Mejuto has published more real drag on Spanish university tacted by a large number of Spanish the passing of “impossible invoices”, than 100 articles “without any quality is the culture of politicisa­ such as one for 57 car journeys to problems detected”. tion and cronyism that has also been Athens by a researcher and another He also denies that any “back­ blamed for bringing the country’s for e1,700 (£1,330) in wine for a scratching network” exists within cajas (regional savings banks) to science programme. his faculty. their knees. Critics claim that the power See no evil ‘No complaints’, says dean structures in many universities are But perhaps most serious for the “The people [here] are elected dem­ dominated by nepotistic networks quality and reputation of Spanish ocratically and supervised by the that tolerate and even promote all universities is the alleged toleration rector,” he says. “There have never manner of non­meritocratic and of research misconduct committed been any complaints.” unethical practices among members, by members of the alleged power Nevertheless, allegations of other while coming down hard on those networks. irregularities within the faculty who dare speak out against them. One example that has garnered abound, many of which were raised According to Spanish education­ much attention is that of Gonzalo at a forum in Madrid earlier this Penalva sacked but not silenced alist José Penalva, 98 per cent of Astray Dopazo, a PhD student at year organised by a fledgling Spanish university positions are won academics who also claim to have the University of Vigo, two of whose network of academics titled the by internal candidates selected by suffered after falling foul of their first­authored papers were retracted Platform Against Corruption at their academic colleagues. The free local power networks. in January 2011 by the Journal of Spanish Universities. flow of personnel between local pol­ Among the stories (which he Chemical and Engineering Data. A source within Vigo says: “The itics and senior university manage­ hopes to collate into another book) The retraction notices explain that whole system is rotten. But the vast ment means that these professors, is that of Jorge Lirola Delgado, “significant portions” of the papers majority of the lecturers, professors in turn, are often in hock to politi­ professor of Arabic and Islamic “duplicate” sections of work previ­ and students – probably because of cal interests, he claims. studies at the University of Almería. ously published by Chinese authors. fear of reprisals – look the other “This means that only the more He says he was suspended last The journal’s former editor­in­ way.” intellectually and politically servile November for four years and three chief, Kenneth Marsh, told report­ Penalva adds that this is also true get posts, and if you criticise the months after reporting the univer­ ers during a visit to Vigo last summer of his experience, and he expresses system, you are accused by the sity rector, Pedro Roque García that in his view – which he confirmed scepticism that the university reform Spanish academic community of not Molina, to the local chief prosecu­ to THE – the case amounted to committee will get to grips with such having ‘trust in institutional democ­ tor, Antonio Pérez Gallegos, for straightforward plagiarism. deep­seated cultural issues. racy’. So the good researchers and alleged criminal offences. According However, by then an investiga­ “My feeling is the committee will lecturers have to leave Spain,” to Lirola, the rector then acted as tive panel convened by the univer­ use fashionable words such as Penalva says. “judge and jury” and found that he sity – which contained no external ‘excellence’, ‘productivity’ and He personally experienced the had acted with “serious disregard members – had already concluded ‘internationalisation’, and ask for No más more stories about corruption in Spain’s universities have emerged since José Penalva went public with his claims, but few expect to see substantial change soon consequences of breaking the “code for superiors” and had caused “seri­ that the duplications were no more more autonomy and more money,” of silence” when in 2010 he pub­ ous injury to the dignity of the staff than “an accumulation of successive told Spanish newspaper El País in A group of distinguished Spanish journals”. One of those economists, For such observers, insult was he says. lished a book titled Corrupción en or administration” of Almería. and negligent errors”. May 2011 that his group had used economists wrote on the blog Nada Luis Garicano, professor of econo­ added to injury in September 2011 “But in the current structure, that la Universidad (Corruption in the Lirola also claims to have spent Neither Astray nor his PhD the Chinese papers to help overcome es Gratis last December that this mics and strategy at the London when Mejuto and two collaborators means more power to the current University). He was driven to write more than 200 hours waiting to be supervisor, Juan Carlos Mejuto their own difficulties with writing explanation “challenges the intelli­ School of Economics, is a member were awarded a e112,000 prize by professors, so it will have no effect it by the campaign of “threats, seen by the chief prosecutor, while Fernández, responded to THE’s in English, and had accidentally sent gence of anyone who has suffered of the Spanish government panel on the Galician regional government’s on nepotism.” insults and envy” to which he claims a legal challenge to his suspension request for comment. But Mejuto the wrong file to the journal. the gruelling review process in good university reform. education department – headed [email protected] 18 Times Higher Education 9 August 2012 9 August 2012 Times Higher Education 19.