Barcelona

The Spanish government, sensitive to criticism over the difficulties of providing attractive career opportunities for young researchers, has approved a programme to improve the pay and working conditions of university assistant professors.

The programme, which came into effect last month, removes a limitation preventing universities from employing full-time assistant professors for more than three years. They can now have their contracts renewed as many times as necessary if they pass an external evaluation.

In addition, new recruitment procedures have been introduced for full-time assistant professors with PhDs, who will receive the same salary — 4 million Ptas (US$23,700) a year — as associate tenured professors.

The move is expected to benefit more than 10,000 assistant professors and to cost the government 21 billion Ptas over three years. Autonomous regional governments will have to contribute a further 7.7 billion Ptas over this period.

The government's actions have been welcomed by labour unions representing university researchers. But left-wing parties and some university rectors are concerned at the financial implications and the lack of medium- and long-term provisions. Some observers argue that the award of the extra money may be politically motivated, as a general election is due to take place next month.

Antonio Caparrós, rector of the University of Barcelona, says that the government's action are likely to stabilize the position of assistant professors. But he cautions that problems involving university professors require long-term solutions.

Meanwhile, Jorge Fernández-Díaz, Spain's secretary for education, has promised to deliver a set of university reforms to parliament by the end of the year. These are expected to include a proposal to reduce from two to one the number of local university representatives on five-member appointment committees — a controversial aspect of Spain's recruitment procedures (see Nature 396,712; 1998).