Academic ranks in Spain are the titles, relative importance and authority of professors, researchers, and administrative personnel held in academia.
According to the Spanish Organic University Law,[1] the following are the academic ranks in Spain: Administrative ranks In the past twenty-five years, Spain has gone through three university reforms: 1983 (Ley de Reforma Universitaria, LRU), 2001 (Ley Orgánica de Universidades, LOU) and 2007 (a mere reform of the LOU with several specific modifications of the 2001 Act).
The external committee was formed by seven draw-selected members (belonging to the same "knowledge area" and fulfilling requisites related to research curricula), who could assign a fixed and pre-determined number of "habilitaciones" similar to the positions requested by the universities.
A specific institution, called the Spanish Agency for Evaluation, Quality and Certification or ANECA by its Spanish acronym (Agencia Nacional de Evaluación de la Calidad y Acreditación [es]), examined the applicants' curricula and issued them a positive evaluation called "acreditación" (certification) giving access to the exams to become a tenured-civil servant professor.
The certification system introduced by the LOU 2001 act and particularly the 2007 reform, which requires the candidate to pass a demanding evaluation process at a national level for each category before applying for a position, has increased the standards of Spanish university professors to those of most OECD countries.
Spain places the following requirements for recognition of non-European qualifications: There also exist permanent, research positions, without teaching duties.
There are three levels: The main differences between these research positions and the faculty positions are, of course, the absence of teaching duties, and the ability to move between different labs (for example, a CSIC researcher can request to move to any CSIC center in Spain or abroad, whereas a faculty member is employed by a specific university).