Analysis of tuition fees in the Spanish Public University System as a consequence of the economic crisis

La crisis de las finanzas públicas ha tenido consecuencias muy importantes en lo que ha pasado a representar la financiación privada en los presupuestos de las universidades públicas españolas. Estos cambios vienen influidos básicamente por dos decisiones de origen autonómico, la reducción de la subvención nominativa que reciben las universidades públicas por parte de los gobiernos de sus respectivas Comunidades Autónomas (CC.AA.) y el aumento del monto correspondiente a las matrículas que abonan los estudiantes y sus familias. Ante esta situación, el presente artículo se concentra en analizar que ha ocurrido con los precios públicos de las enseñanzas oficiales de grado y máster en las universidades públicas españolas en el periodo de la crisis económica (2008/09-2015/16). Se han llevado a cabo tres tipos de análisis de los precios de matrícula para cuantificar las diferencias “intra” o dentro de la propia comunidad autónoma (en referencia a los diferentes precios por grado de experimentalidad), las diferencias “entre” CC.AA. y, por último, si se ha producido convergencia (o divergencia) regional de los precios de matrícula, tanto en grado como en máster, a raíz de la crisis económica. Las autoras concluyen que con el esquema de precios tan asimétrico que existe actualmente, se producen grandes diferencias a nivel autonómico, lo que afecta directamente a los estudiantes que acceden a universidades públicas en las diferentes CC.AA., especialmente a aquellos que proceden de Comunidades con precios más altos y que provienen de familias con menores niveles de renta. Finalmente, se recogen en las conclusiones algunas propuestas de reformaThe crisis of public finances has had very important consequences in the private funding of the Spanish public universities budgets. These changes are mainly influenced by two decisions of regional governments, the reduction of the block grant that public universities of their territories have obtained and the increase in the amount of tuition fees that students (and their families) have payed. In this context, the aim of the paper is to analyze what has occurred with the public fees for the Bachelor and Master programs in Spanish public universities in the period of the economic crisis (2008/09-2015/16). Three types of analysis of tuition fees have been made to quantify differences "intra" or within the own Spanish region (in reference to the different prices per type of study), the differences "between" Spanish regions and, finally, if there has been convergence (or divergence) at regional level, both in Bachelor and Master fees, as a result of the economic crisis. The authors conclude that with the current tuition fees scheme, there are important regional differences, which directly affect university students , especially to those who come from Spanish regions with higher fees and who come from families with lower levels of income. Finally, some reform proposals are reflected in the conclusion

The relationship between knowledge management and innovation level in Mexican SMEs: Empirical evidence

The transformation of the current society from an industry-based economy to a knowledge management and innovation-based economy is changing the design and implementation of business strategies and the nature of the competition among the organizations which are mainly small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs). They struggle to survive in a market which is more demanding and competitive, so they seeknowledge management as one of the most effective strategies that may help to enable the innovation activities into the businesses. For these reasons, this research paper has as a main goal to analyze the relationship between knowledge management and innovation in Mexican SMEs. The empirical analysis used 125 manufacturing SMEs (each SME having from 20 to 250 employees) as a sample to be carried out. The obtained results indicate that knowledge management has a positive impact in products, process, and management systems innovation

Las nuevas tecnologías al servicio de la igualdad: análisis de las páginas web de las unidades de igualdad de las universidades españolas

[RESUMEN] La comunicación a través de la página web y su utilización a favor de unos determinados objetivos debería constituir una de las preocupaciones básicas de cualquier institución. La bibliografía relativa a las Unidades de Igualdad de las universidades españolas creadas en la primera década del siglo XXI es todavía escasa. Desde ese doble ángulo, la atribución a las nuevas tecnologías de un papel clave en la sociedad actual y la ausencia de trabajos, se ofrece una breve presentación de las Unidades de Igualdad en la que éstas se cuantifican, se identifican diferentes nombres utilizados y fechas de creación, y se destaca el papel de la Red de Unidades de Igualdad de Género para la Excelencia Universitaria (RUIGEU). El trabajo prosigue con un estudio descriptivo de las páginas web de las Unidades de Igualdad, en el que se relacionan características y contenidos (información, actividades, publicaciones, enlaces, planes de igualdad), identificando los elementos más favorables y los más deficientes, para concluir con una serie de propuestas de mejora

Bilbao and the magazine Nueva Forma

It was in the 1960s when architects interested in organizing the past had enough historical perspective to present different narratives for Spanish modern architecture. The different books published throughout this decade documented buildings that were clearly influenced by the language of the International Style. Many of these buildings are now regarded as masterful examples of Spanish architecture culture. The main scope of these books was style, with the aim to document—especially through photographs—and demonstrate that modernity was a reality in Spain. At the same time, geographical aspects were latent, but not explicit, in the organization of those books, essentially because of the location of the buildings that were selected to be published. Madrid and Barcelona were mainly the two cities represented, probably because there were only two schools of architecture in those years, one in each city. Therefore, the most relevant journals of architecture were also published in those cities: Revista Nacional de Arquitectura (later called Arquitectura) in Madrid, and Cuadernos de Arquitectura (later called Cuadernos de Arquitectura y Urbanismo) in Barcelona. In 1966, a new magazine of art and architecture titled Nueva Forma was founded. It is remarkable that architects from the Basque Country, and also Navarre, had significant roles in much of its issues. The director and editors of Nueva Forma identified this territory as a third cultural area of Spain, highlighting the history and the architecture of the city of Bilbao..

An exploratory analysis of the use of contracted and uncontracted negative forms in relation to the variable age.

Este TFG examina el uso de las formas negativas contraídas y no contraídas en una muestra representativa de nativos ingleses atendiendo a la variable de la edad de la per- sona. Tomando como punto de partida los conceptos de negativos contraídos, estudiados principalmente por Castillo González y los negativos no contraídos, estudiados por Ali, Zwicky y Quirk, se analizará el uso que estas tienen en la vida real de personas de dis- tintas edades. Para ello y partiendo de la ayuda logística de un contacto académico reali- zando durante una estancia Erasmus, analizo los resultados de un cuestionario online que se administró a un total de 1883 personas mayores de 18 años. Así, los resultados señalan que la frecuencia de uso entre una forma u otra no varía significativamente con la edad, concluyendo que las personas jóvenes (entre 18 y 25 años) y mayores (60+) tienden a usar más las formas negativas contraídas. Así pues, la conclusión final es que tanto los jóvenes como las personas mayores tienen a contraer el auxiliar en las formas negativas debido a su rapidez y pereza a la hora de hablar.<br /

Ecosistemas de alta montaña, las atalayas de la troposfera

La troposfera es el fluido en el que vivimos los organismos terrestres. La dinámica de este fluido hace posible el funcionamiento de los ecosistemas terrestres y acuáticos continentales tal como los conocemos. Factores locales como las precipitaciones atmosféricas (secas y húmedas) o la calidad de la radiación solar que llega al suelo, muy afectada por el contenido de aerosoles en la troposfera, dependen de fenómenos que pueden ocurrir a miles de kilómetros. Los ecosistemas de alta montaña, como la Sierra Nevada del sur ibérico, son los sensores más finos que poseemos para el estudio de los efectos de esos factores y para detectar pronto sus tendencias y cambios

Excellence and Quality in Andalusia University Library System

From 1996 onwards, then, the Quality Assessment National Plan and the adoption of its agenda by regional authorities and Universities alike has resulted in a growing acceptance by the Spanish academic community of the challenges and opportunities offered by evaluation and quality assurance activities. Academic librarians have been committed to this culture of quality from the very beginnings and in most cases have being leading the way in their own institutions. General tools like the Evaluation Guide referred to above developed to be applied in administration and services alike were of little use for libraries, so academic libraries have been the first units to develop their own evaluation guides at local and regional levels. University System in Andalusia (Spain) is formed by 10 Universities financed by regional government. The Quality Unit of Andalusia Universities convened in 2000 an Assessment University Libraries Pilot Plan to do a global analysis of the Library System. This Pilot Plan has had three steps: - During 2000-2002, a technical committee to draft a new evaluation guide for academic libraries. Based on the EFQM, because of its growing influence in the evaluation of the public sector and not-for-profit organizations across Europe. During the course of our work we were delighted to see that we concurred basically with the approach taken by LISIM. The Guide is divided into 5 parts, as follows: Analysis and Description of 9 criteria adapted to library scenario, 35 Tables for data collection, a set of 30 quality and performance Indicators, a Excellence-rating matrix, an objective tool, to determine the level of excellence achieved by the library on a scale from 0 to 10, and General guidelines for the Assessment Committees of University Departments (the basic unit of research assessment undertaken by the University) and of degree courses (the basic unit of assessment of teaching personnel). - In 2002-2004, a coordination committee drove the assessment process of 9 libraries and tested materials and evaluation methodology. The Pilot Plan has finalised with External Evaluation for 5 External Committee formed by librarians, faculties and EFQM methodology specialist. The aim of this paper is explain different parts and strong points of this process and how EFQM is suitable for all kind of librarie

New Burnout Evaluation Model Based on the Brief Burnout Questionnaire: Psychometric Properties for Nursing

Health care personnel are considered one of the worker sectors most exposed to heavier workloads and work stress. One of the consequences associated with the exposure to chronic stress is the development of burnout syndrome. Given that evaluating this syndrome requires addressing the context in which they are to be used, the purpose of this work was to analyze the psychometric properties and structure of the Burnout Brief Questionnaire (CBB), and to propose a more suitable version for its application to health professionals, and more specifically nurses. The final study sample was made up of 1236 working nursing professionals. An exploratory factorial analysis was carried out and a new model was proposed through a confirmatory factorial analysis. Thus, validation of the CBB questionnaire for nursing health care personnel showed an adequate discrimination of the items and a high internal consistency of the scale. With respect to the factorial analysis, four factors were extracted from the revised model. Specifically, these new factors, called job dissatisfaction, social climate, personal impact, and motivational abandonment, showed an adequate index of adjustment. Thus, the Brief Burnout Questionnaire Revised for nursing staff has favorable psychometric properties, and this model can be applied to all health care professionals