Assessment of teaching quality and promotion of teaching staff. Spanish university legislation: modification of the Spanish University Act. Civil service teaching staff: from qualification to accreditation (2004-2008)

After winning the general elections in March 2004, the new Socialist Party (PSOE) government began the process of amending the Spanish University Act (LOU), which had been enacted in 2002 by the People’s Party (PP) government. The aim of the amendment was to increase the autonomy of universities. In this paper, we explain the process of the new act passing through parliament (the Act to amend the LOU), until it was enacted in April 2007. We describe the amendments made to the articles on civil service university teaching staff, and we analyse the subsequent development of the new regulations.