The future of Spanish public universities: The challenges of a discourse of excellence

This study aims to analyze the challenges facing Spanish public universities at a crucial moment for defining their essence. The political, economic, and social circumstances of the current moment oblige us to reflect on the role that universities should play. This reflection will be essential in responding to the ever more exacting demands of market economies, the kinds of societies in which these institutions are immersed. Therefore, this paper tries to analyze the repercussions that global changes in politics and economics are having on public universities in Spain. Once again, we shall discover how globalization processes determine the education planning of a country. On this point, the compass of governance has set the course of the educational institutions for economic efficiency, following a set of market criteria that involve their own funding and results.