University of Murcia<\/a> and a member of the CRUE working group that worked on the guidelines. \u201cWe cannot have the same exam, because we don\u2019t teach the same content.\u201d<\/p>\nMoreover, \u201cthe specific design of the PAU is developed by regional examination boards, composed of representatives from public universities, regional education authorities and Bachillerato teachers,\u201d said Carlos Magro, president of the Asociaci\u00f3n Educaci\u00f3n Abierta (Open Education Association). \u201cIt is inevitable that the exams differ from one region to another.\u201d<\/p>\n
ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had the difficult but important job of giving all Spanish students the same opportunities in the exam,\u201d Madrid C\u00e1novas said. \u201cWe have prepared a model which is coherent and fair, but also fully respects regional differences.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the new guidelines, competency-based questions should comprise 25 per cent of the exam, while CRUE has also determined core knowledge blocks and specific evaluation criteria. The guidelines further advise on marking criteria concerning form and language; for instance, they standardise penalties for spelling errors.<\/p>\n
ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
While CRUE expects the new guidelines to come into place for the 2026 exam season, they are not binding: they must be accepted by each regional government. \u201cWe\u2019re expecting to have the final answer in one or two months, because the students need to know in September what kind of exam they\u2019re going to sit,\u201d Madrid C\u00e1novas said.<\/p>\n
The Murcia vice-rector told THE that the \u201cmixed model\u201d entrance system, combining both school grades and entrance exam scores, helps mitigate the unfair advantage obtained by students attending \u201cvery good high schools, where they have all the support” and which may grade students more generously.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Others disagree. Even if the CRUE guidelines are adopted, said Magro, the PAU will continue to \u201cconsistently benefit students from more privileged backgrounds while disadvantaging those who have faced systemic barriers since early childhood\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe PAU does not correct the disparities that arise along the educational path, disparities largely shaped by socio-economic status and cultural capital, such as the educational level of parents,\u201d Magro said. By the time students sit the entrance exam, he said, socio-economic disadvantage may have already impacted both their \u201cacademic performance and perceived possibilities for their future\u201d.<\/p>\n
ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
At university, \u201cthere is a marked over-representation of students with highly educated or professionally qualified parents\u201d, he said,\u00a0citing enrolment data from the 2019-2020 academic year indicating that almost two-thirds of students had at least one parent with higher qualifications.<\/p>\n
Calling for equitable university access to be treated as an \u201curgent priority\u201d, Magro\u00a0said: \u201cThis goal cannot be achieved by focusing solely on the PAU. We need to reflect on and intervene in what happens long before students reach Bachillerato.\u201d<\/p>\n
emily.dixon@timeshighereducation.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Efforts to make Spain\u2019s university entrance exams more consistent will not solve access inequalities without more systemic attempts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[2000,299,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-150814","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-spain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114611049235798915","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}