In the middle of the debate about master's degrees not carried out or irregularly obtained, focused for now on Madrid's Rey Juan Carlos University, which does nothing but take down political careers, the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, has brought up an attempt at bribery (can it be called anything else?) from a multinational to "easily" finish two subjects she had left for her philosophy degree at the University of Barcelona (UB). The seriousness of the statements she made on TV3 this morning only grew as the hours passed, with public remarks which went from puzzlement to anger and irritation from political adversaries, university professors, people with UB qualifications and students of the university, among others. The shock waves from Colau's comments even forced, after nightfall, the university itself to announce that it "would ask for explanations for her insinuations, since no shadow of doubt can be allowed over our degrees".
It's enormously reckless that, after having seen the prestige of Rey Juan Carlos University nosedive, with the apparent and alleged shady deals of some of the senior staff at that time, and who by coincidence should have been later promoted to positions as honourable as seats on the Constitutional Court, it should be the mayor of Barcelona who ends up sowing doubts about the university which bears the name of the city. It's irresponsible to do so and even worse to let the issue grow and grow without a denial or an explanation of what she did when, according to her, she was approached by the multinational's directors.
Did Colau go to denounce it immediately as a blatant attempt to offer forged marks or has she kept it secret until now? Did she not give so much importance to the offer from the multinational's directors? Did she exaggerate a little in her explanation to TV3? Her silence allows all the hypotheses to remain open although, sadly, none of them is good for the educational community of the University of Barcelona, ranked among the 100 best in the world and the 25 best in Europe according to the list published in May by the Center for World University Rankings. Specifically, UB is 87th in the world and 24th in Europe.
The best contribution Colau can make to the situation she's created is to burst the bubble as soon as possible. The university deserves better, as do its staff and students who haven't done anything to end up in the middle of the mire.