The College of Lawyers of Madrid (ICAM) will deliver a diploma and three master’s degrees as a center attached to the Complutense University (UCM), which will deliver its titles, thanks to the blessing of its rector, Joaquín Goyache, and the regional president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso. However, it faces serious objections from institutions dependent on the Community of Madrid. Fundación Madrid+d, which analyzes the quality of the regional university system, published an unfavorable report, which is not closed, considering that CUICAM (ICAM Centro Universitario) was “against its own statutes” and enjoyed “a conflict of interest with other universities”. Luego, general counsel, forced the school to change its statutes and, ultimately, the Board of Education raised doubts about its economic viability for four years. EL PAÍS has accessed the reports.
The Education Councilor, Emilio Viciana, will have to give explanations to the Assembly on the ICAM center next July, at the request of the socialist group. “(The center) would be a bigger test than what (Isabel Díaz) Ayuso flees this community to her private casino,” her spokesperson, Mar Espinar, said in a statement. “And where I always get the best job, which allows me to stand alongside our president.”
Espinar includes Ayuso in the investigation because ICAM became involved in March 2024 as a popular accusation in the trial against the former state fiscal general, Álvaro Ortiz, in defense of Alberto González Amador, his couple. And his government authorized the registration of the center in full court on November 11. The school was outraged by the news published by Cadena Ser: “ICAM strongly rejects any insinuation of a favor or ‘payment for services’ in relation to the authorization of ICAM Centro Universitario.”
The timeline of the establishment of the center parallels the history of meetings and developments between Ayuso and the director. In October 2022, it was announced that ICAM would have the first center attached to a professional school in Spain and the machine was set in motion. In March 2023, Goyache, by surprise, was re-elected rector with the support of the powerful dean of the Derecho, Ricardo Alonso. Ayuso also contributed to this victory. So much so that the president of Nuevas Generaciones en Madrid, Ignacio Dancausa, and several PP advisors were identified for leading a Goyache election campaign on Comics Day.
Goyache appointed three vice-rectors and the general secretariat of the Faculty of Derecho, near Alonso, and ICAM continued to work on the project on familiar ground. When the rector negotiated a favor in 2024 for Begoña Gómez, wife of the president and co-director of an extraordinary chair at the UCM, his relationship with Ayuso broke down. Today, while the rector has appeared in court against Gómez and the regional government has given him credit, the tyrants languish. The center was approved and Alonso went from dean of a public faculty to director of the private center, with a stop in between as director of the Escuela de Práctica Jurídica de la UCM.
Even though Viciana’s advisor publicly defended the project, the technicians began their parallel work. A report from the Legal Advisor, his council’s petition following Madrid+d’s first analysis, concluded in May 2024: “A vocational school may hold an assigned center (…) provided that its statutes expressly provide for a teaching activity.” A few months later, the change happened in the blink of an eye. The abogacía imposed this change only for the outsourcing of the grado. According to his interpretation, the school made it possible to train postgraduate students.
In February 2025, the town hall predicted that, if the center’s expenses were to be covered by income over four years, within the framework which would lead to profits: “The inversions to be carried out are not estimated according to their financing. Neither is the extent of the amortization of this investment in each financial year, which, on the other hand, would increase expenses.” ICAM disputes something else when this newspaper questions the press service about the evolution of the financial plan: “It is an economically viable model, which will guarantee the profitability of the university center, within the framework of efficient and responsible management.” For the first year, it is planned to make a “contribution” to the UCM of 408,000 euros and 940,000 euros over four years.
Madrid again published in September another report favorable to the project to change the statutes, although the technicians insisted on the “conflict of interest with other universities”. The foundation did not collect analytics on its website, as it always has. On the other hand, reports on infrastructure and digitalization do not appreciate failures.
Teachers with many hours of lessons
The Madrid technicians have made calculations: “If a professor gives up to 250 hours per year, 46 professors will be needed, more than expected. If, however, the legal requirements relating to the professor are met, he will have to dedicate himself less to research.” When asked if it will hire the best professor, given the criticism from the investigating side, ICAM responds thus without clarifying anything: “The factory will be integrated by professors of the highest excellence, according to the standards of quality objectives.”
“It is not easy to be a center of excellence when staff from public universities cannot go and teach in an attached center. And now a center that does not investigate cannot be a university center,” says Julio González, professor of administrative law at UCM. He added the former secretary general of Complutense (2003-2011): “It is not normal, I do not believe it is reasonable, for a professional school to devote itself to teaching. This is not its institutional function. And as a college student, who is not active, it bothers me that there is an activity that is not his.
About The Author
