The Universities’ Council will study the recommendation made by the Office of the Ombudsman to establish the obligation to reserve a minimum percentage of places on Master’s degree and PhD courses for students with disability. The Ministry of Education has informed the Office that this recommendation will be included in the agenda of the next meeting of the Universities’ Council.
The law makes it compulsory to reserve a specific quota for students with disability on official university degree courses, but not at subsequent stages (Master’s degrees and PhDs).
The Office of the Ombudsman points out that the public general act of Parliament for Universities and the University Student Statute provide for taking measures for avoiding discrimination on the grounds of disability, regardless of which stage of education the students are in.
Consequently, the Office recommended the Secretariat of State for Education, Vocational Training and Universities to establish the obligation to reserve a minimum percentage of places on Master’s degree and PhD courses for students with disability. In addition to that, it opened an own-initiative inquiry with Spanish public universities to find out whether their admission procedures for students of this kind make allowance for reserving a percentage of places for students with disability.
