The graduates of the public university earn 3,500 euros less a year than those of the private one: “There is coffee financing for all without incentive to compete”

Public universities have a problem with the labor insertion of their graduates. They have been dragging a mismatch among studies that offer young people and the demands of the labor market. His former students have a rate of affiliation to the Social security lower than those studied in private universities. They also show worse salaries, lower proportion of indefinite contracts, less full -time working days and more employees in contribution groups below their qualification.

The indicators of the last Statistics for Social Security Affiliation of University graduates -What follows the professional adventures of all students since the race end up to four years after graduating- they show that the private has eaten the public in terms of employability, something that probably explains that the number of registered and new private centers has skyrocketed while the students of the public are for the first time in a recoil.

The data crossed by the Ministries of Universities and Social Security show that the families that can afford them are willing to pay around 60.000 euros that costs a career in the private 4.000 euros that are around the public because they see that they get a return return for their children. Two years after having graduated, young people in the 2019 promotion in private 69%while the rate in that same cohort in the public is 63%six less points.

The differences are even greater as soon as they leave the campus, with an affiliation of the 53% in public and 61% In the private one a year after finishing the studies, which is equivalent to an eight percentage points. This advantage is observed for the private from the first available data (those of the generation that ended the degree in 2010) until now a year, at two years and in the third year of finishing their studies.

Only the shifts change the fourth year of graduation, and only in the last generation to which the trail has been followed (the 2019 promotion that was working in 2023). The affiliation of these students is slightly higher in the public (78%) that in private (76%), A sign that could indicate that some public campuses have begun to put the batteries in the face of the progress of the private ones.

In any case, the graduates of private universities of all promotions have higher salaries at all times of their professional career: two years after graduating, the average price of the latest generation is located in 28.125 euros; that is to say, 3,545 euros more -and 14% of salary increase- that 24.580 euros that public graduates win.

A year after the end, the salary difference reaches the 18% In favor of private ones, while the gap is moderated to the third (13%) and fourth year (12%), although always in favor of the private. These campuses also go ahead in proportion of indefinite contracts (52% in front of 49% to the second year); In full -time jobs (76% in front of 73%); In the freelancer (10% in front of 5%), and in hired within the high contribution group, that of university graduates (64% compared to the 52% of public campus graduates).

The results of young people who have completed a master’s degree are in the same direction and are even more revealing: there is a 23% of salary gap (6.700 euros more) in favor of private graduates a year after graduation; a 7% to the second year (2,500 euros); a 4,7% (1,500 euros) to the third year, and a 23% (about 7,000 euros difference) to the fourth year.

This newspaper asked for the reasons for these differences to the rectors of the Complutense Universitythe University of Barcelona and the Carlos III University and none has facilitated them. Yes, the Minister of Universities of Andalusia has been explained, José Carlos Gómez Villamandosformer president of the Conference of rectors of Spanish universities (CRUE) and former rector of the University of Córdoba: “The offer of private ones is oriented to disciplines with high employability, while the public has to maintain all kinds of careers – for example, those of humanities – not to lose knowledge.” Villamandas encourages to look at the breakdown of the data by regions -«the private ones are mostly in Madrid, Cataluña and the Valencian Communitywhere salaries are higher as there is a higher life index »-, for degrees and for concrete universities.

By CCAA, only in Andalusia, Sneaky y the Basque Country The salary is greater for the former students of the public. In the rest of the regions, private students always come out. As for the degrees, it is still more profitable to do Medicine in the public (its contribution base at two years is 32.287 euros,235 more than for those of private), as is the case in engineering (30.051 euros in the public in front of 28.130 euros in Industrial Organization Engineering) and in scientific-technical degrees, much requested by the market.

On the other hand, in legal and business careers, there are benefits for those of private. In Business Administrationthe highest contribution bases reach them, two years after graduating, the graduates of the private Ramon Llull (30.395 euros), Icade (28.803 euros) or IE University (27.476 euros). The public with better results in salary terms, always according to this statistic, are the Polytechnic of Catalonia (26.115 euros), the Carlos III (24,984 euros) or the Autonomous University of Barcelona (24.873).

In universities, there are two differentiated groups in practice: on the one hand, a handful of public highly demanded by students in several degrees, which equal or exceed private employability, and, on the other, the rest of the public, with less job insertion. Antonio CabralesProfessor of Economics of the Carlos III University and that integrated the government group España 2050 To improve the training of the population, he argues that these data show that “the labor market discriminates in terms of quality” because “public universities with higher wages coincide with those that go above in the rankings».

Cabrales also points to the importance of the “effect of family connections” – “private students belong to families with more contact possibilities and, if your father works in a consulting, it is easier for you to find a hole in that field” – and a lower link with the public market with the labor market. «Private ones have more resources to dedicate to their job orientation departments. It gives me the feeling that public universities, except exceptions, do not give it so much importance, ”he laments.

Margarita Arboixformer rector of the Autonomous University of Barcelona And Professor of Pharmacology on this campus, also carries self -criticism along that path: «Private universities are winning the land especially in the master’s degrees and in the areas of Social Sciences, Right o Economy. The public are to blame that we are very slow. It cost us three years to update the structure of the Medicine career, while private universities create and cancel programs in a short time. They are more agile. They adapt better to the market, with issues closely linked to economic and social reality. They have teachers who work in companies and classes are more practical ».

Why is the public university take more seriously the labor insertion of its graduates? “Because we have no incentive to do it,” he replies Clara Eugenia NúñezProfessor of History and Economic Institutions of the Unit. «The financing we receive from the CCAA is not linked to that objective, but depends on the number of registered. We are given more money for having more new students, but no one measures successability success. Missing competitiveness and ability to react, ”he adds. When she was the General Director of Universities of the Community of Madrid between 2004 and 2009, Núñez launched a objective financing system that was in force until 2011. He still remembers the difficulties he had to gather the labor insertion data of the graduates that are now shown in this report: «The universities refused to give them to me, they put a thousand excuses. There has been a covenant of silence between them ».

Currently there is no autonomous community that contributes more funds to those public universities that take more seriously labor insertion, although more and more experts in university management claim it. “I would put stimuli to compensate for teachers who foster employability,” says Arboix. Cabrales is in favor of creating contracts-program that “encourage” universities that put resources to professionally guide their students and also see necessary to “put more interest” in promoting the studies demanded by the market. According to a recently published investigation in You functionthere are no enough places in public universities for careers with more work. Jorge SainzProfessor of Economy of the Rey Juan Carlos University and co -author of this work: «All Catalan universities continue to offer Catalan Philology Although the demand is scarce. The criteria are not those of the market ».

«The private university is far from its students because, if you lose them, there are consequences. They pay much to retain them the four years and give much importance to teaching. In the public, the rates of abandonment of the races are very high. There are no incentives or competition. The teachers are too concentrated in doing research that are not relevant but that allow us to access officials and ascend in the ladder ». Núñez’s words point to other “inefficiencies”, in this case in research, which the public university presents: “We publish many articles, but the impact index they have is very low. It is published to prosper in the race, but not to solve problems ».

“The system incentives especially little to publish good things, because maximum excellence is rarely rewarded,” adds the Cabrales, who was working on University College London And it can compare: «In British universities, there are professors who charge the equivalent of 50,000 euros and others that win 500,000. That in Spain is impossible ». How could public university be more productive? “In the time the researchers spend paperwork,” he says.

The engineer José Manuel Torralbadirector of the IMDEA Materials and Professor Institute at the Carlos III University, agrees that “in the public system there is an excessive bureaucracy.” He also believes that the relationship with former students and marketing could be improved. “We do not make any effort to sell ourselves because there is coffee financing for all.”