Study reveals that the majority of Spanish public universities fail to comply with the quota for teachers with disabilities

An analysis of Spanish public universities between 2016 and 2025 shows widespread non-compliance with the legal quota of a 7% reservation of positions for teaching and research staff with disabilities. The study points to deficiencies in planning, registration, and monitoring of this public policy by the administrations.

Spanish legislation establishes that a minimum of 7% of public employment vacancies must be reserved for people with disabilities, a principle compatible with the criteria of merit and capacity required in university teaching. However, after examining data provided by two-thirds of the country's 48 public universities, researchers found that out of the 2,255 positions that should have been reserved between 2016 and 2025 out of a total of 27,320 advertised, only 244 were allocated.

The report notes that during the period between 2016 and 2022, no public university met the established quota, and between 2023 and 2025 only the universities of Barcelona, Jaén, UNED, and Zaragoza met the requirement in some of those years. As a frequent argument to justify the omission, university officials cite the difficulty of applying the percentage when calls consist of a single position, although consultative bodies such as the Andalusian Ombudsman have indicated that the calculation must be planned over the total public employment offer.

Likewise, the analysis detects competency and supervisory gaps between state ministries, regional governments, and the academic institutions themselves. The authors propose strengthening the transparent publication of data, integrating specific disability indicators into public information systems, and enabling control mechanisms to guarantee the effective compliance of current regulations.