The higher education reform though welcome speeches at University of Salamanca (1923-1936)

Abstract

Changes in the field of higher education, promoted in the final stage of the Restoration, throughout the Primo de Rivera dictatorship and during the Second Republic, fuelled an internal debate in the universities that, partially, continued deliberations originated at the end-of-century crisis. Thanks to the comprehensive and comparative study of welcome speeches delivered by different professors at the University of Salamanca, this paper analyses the ideas, proposals and arguments made by those professors. The debate between autonomists and centralists, the question of the selection of academics, criticism of the education system or the attitude to adopt towards students are some of the issues addressed here. This paper also reveals the current interest of a good number of the reforms outlined in the speeches.