Twenty-five years teaching at the university.
Two at the Complutense University of Madrid and the rest at the University of Granada.
How has the university changed?
In the mid-nineties it was overcrowded, I had groups with 500 students. I remember the hours of tutoring, the students lined up in my office full of interesting and curious questions, it was stimulating.
And today?
In the year 2023, the number of students has been reduced to 10% in a university with many more resources, students who have all the knowledge at their fingertips, but with great disinterest.
Absenteeism?
Huge, and they have a much lower level than students had 15 years ago. Those who come to class do so mostly with their laptop and cell phone, which they use without any shame during class hours. That's why I wrote an open letter: Dear student, we are deceiving you.
His letter went viral.
Deception arises when you make a student believe that he is better prepared than he really is. The latest educational laws have been aimed at pushing students forward regardless of whether they meet the skills they are supposed to have from the ages of 14 to 17.
How do they get to university?
We have two options: continue maintaining the university level and the majority would fail, or lower the level, which is what we have done. I approve students in 2023 that I would not approve in 2015, and that is a deception.
What do university students lack today?
They do not have enough vocabulary to understand the contents, nor the ability to express themselves. I have students who don't know what words like univocally or let's take a break mean. And they lack soft skills such as knowing how to be, their attitudes are childish.
What is it referring to?
In the second year of college I must have a sign that says: “Please, do not stick gum or paint on the tables.” I also have to cross my arms waiting for them to shut up to start class and there is zero debate, zero participation. The works and presentations are copied from Rincón del Vago and are unsmokable. And they are not in class.
Where are they?
They are on Instagram. When you're on the operating table and your doctor has spent college classes surfing TikTok, things start to get complicated.
Mobile phones better disconnected in class?
Banned in primary and secondary school, and explain to them what is behind all these companies that invest millions of euros in algorithms to keep them hooked in the hope that when they reach university they will already know how to control themselves.
Do universities require a minimum number of passes?
The activities of the teaching staff are monitored; one of them is the number of students passing each subject, which influences the department's budget. If there is a professor who fails above average, the university is going to give him a warning.
Do you have to pass students you wouldn't pass?
You lower the level. Last year I gave my students the same exam that I gave in 2015, approved by 70% of those presented; In 2022 they approved four.
An educational policy problem?
The law changes every five years. We need an educational pact that works and that is based on effort, not on pushing the student forward. It seems that we want to disguise the school failure figures, which are measured based on the number of repeaters, lowering the level and allowing students to pass the grade.
What else worries you?
The abandonment of students with high abilities. We have Ferraris in class that are going at the same speed as a Seat Panda and since there is that general climate of boredom in class, they don't want to stand out either. Mediocrity and ignorance are fashionable, boasting that one is ignorant.
In college?
Yes, and in society in general. A person who is cultured, who wants to learn, is annoying. Superficiality is the norm, I live it every day.
Give me some of your proposals.
Let's make the first university and vocational training years more flexible. Degrees do not have to be cement blocks. Are you starting Computer Science and you don't like it? Let's make catwalks.
Other.
There are students with a vocation overshadowed by the prevailing mediocrity. The university is to train intellectual elites. Vocational training creates great professionals who do not have to be university students.
