Electoral procedure

A total of 33,852 members of the university community are called to vote: 1,244 permanent teaching and research staff with PhDs (PDI-A); 3,881 other teaching and research staff (PDI-B); 26,704 bachelor’s and master’s degree students (EGM); and 2,023 technical, management, administrative and service staff (PTGAS).

This election is the first to reflect significant changes brought about by the new Organic Law 2/2023 on the University System (LOSU). Since the updated UPC Statutes are not yet in force and pending publication in the Official Gazette of the Catalan Government (DOGC), the current election is still governed by the 2012 Statutes. Key changes include the eligibility criteria*, which now require candidates to be full-time, permanent teaching and research staff with PhDs, three six-year research periods, three five-year teaching periods and four years of university management experience in a single-person position.

Another major change is the duration of the term, now set at a single, non-renewable six-year mandate, as established by the LOSU. In addition, blank votes will now count toward the total in the first round.

The election follows a weighted universal suffrage model, meaning that all registered members of the UPC community are eligible to vote, but the weight of each vote differs by group. The weighting coefficients for this election are:

1. Permanent teaching and research staff with PhDs: 51%
2. Other teaching and research staff: 14%
3. Bachelor’s and master’s degree students: 24%
4. Technical, management, administrative and service staff: 11%

According to article 51.2 of the LOSU, a candidate will be elected in the first round if they receive more than half of the valid weighted votes.

If there is more than one candidate and none of them reaches this threshold, a second round will be held between the two candidates with the highest number of valid weighted votes from the first round.

In the second round, the winner is the candidate with a simple majority, again based on the same weightings and excluding blank votes.

* According to decision JEU/2025/01/03 of the UPC’s Electoral Board, single-person management roles are those defined in the 2012 Statutes and related regulations referenced in articles 79, 82, 86, 89 and 92 of the 2012 Statutes, as well as the general guidelines for drafting internal regulations of schools, departments and research institutes, including the Doctoral School and the Institute of Education Sciences.