Obligating university professors to prove level of Catalan, a measure of “equilibrium”

Barcelona (ACN).- The Catalan Minister for Innovation, Universities, and Businesses, Josep Huguet, said that the decree-law that obligates university professors who want fixed positions in Catalonia to prove their level of Catalan is a measure of “equilibrium”. He argued that “a large part of professors are linguistically competent in Spanish, but not in Catalan”. Huguet explained that the decree-law would affect teachers who are seeking a fixed position in Catalan universities as well as those who want to change their workplace. It will not affect those who are already employed or those seeking temporary employment.

Huguet also believes that professors who wish to give classes in Spanish and English should also prove their levels. Because of this “overwhelming logic…it must also apply for Catalan”. The required level for new professors or those professors who wish to change positions is level C, representing sufficiency in Catalan. Among everything, the Minister wanted to specify that this condition “will not be applied at the beginning, but the end,” meaning that new professors will have “prudential enough” time to obtain the sufficient level of Catalan that the new decree-law requires. The Minister also revealed that the decree-law “is ripe”; the university community has come to an agreement to approve the law this September.