The Student Delegation of the Geography, History and Art History Section of the University of La Laguna has expressed its concern about the growing trend towards the covert replacement and contraction of degrees in the Arts and Humanities branch at the public university, a process often driven by strictly accounting criteria and current demand.
Through their active participation in the 9th Ordinary General Assembly of the Inter-University Sectoral Association of Humanities Students (SIUEH), the student body from the University of La Laguna has added its voice to the defense of rigorous curricula. Asier Álvarez, student representative from the Tenerife campus and treasurer of the Humanities Student Delegation, highlighted the university's commitment to the development and approval of the national position on the matter.
In this regard, it is strongly emphasized that “it is not at all appropriate to resort to merged or 'Frankenstein' degrees in order to ensure accounting viability, nor to those double degrees designed to avoid going through quality agencies such as ACCUEE or ANECA, which end up directly harming the depth of training and the future of the students.‘.
Curriculum compression and violation of quality
Student representatives point out that these dynamics don't usually translate into the explicit elimination of traditional degrees like History, Philosophy, Philology, and Art History, but rather into a progressive degradation of their content. Compressing core and methodological subjects to fit two degrees into a single pathway fragments education, drastically reduces elective options, and hinders subsequent job placement, preparation for competitive public service exams, or access to research master's programs.
Furthermore, the Delegation warns about the proliferation of “multidisciplinary” labels geared towards the immediate market as a covert replacement for fundamental degrees, which erodes the critical mass of teaching and research staff in departments.
Álvarez emphasized that this reduction in available programs critically affects territorial equity, forcing students with fewer resources to relocate or abandon their humanities aspirations. In the case of the Canary Islands, protecting these degrees is strategic for research and safeguarding the archipelago's cultural and historical heritage.
For all these reasons, the Humanities Student Delegation of the University of La Laguna demands that university governing bodies, regional ministries and quality assessment agencies implement qualitative criteria that measure the social and scientific relevance of these disciplines, claiming a real and binding co-decision role for students in decisions concerning the future of their study plans.
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