The principal of the Miguel Hernández University of Elche (UMH), Juan José Ruiz, assumes the Presidency of the Conference of Principals of Valencian Public Universities’ (CRUPV). The event took place in the Meeting Room of the Bernia building at Altea Campus of UMH. The five principals of the Valencian public universities have attended the event, as well as the regional secretary of Universities, María Esther Gómez, and the general director of Universities, José Antonio Pérez.

Principal Juan José Ruiz substitutes previous principal of the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), José Capilla. This change in Presidency is part of an agreement among the five universities: UMH, Universitat de València, Universitat Politècnica de València, University of Alacant, and Universitat Jaume I. The Presidency lasts for a year and rotates among the five universities that form the Valencian public system.

During his first speech as president of the CRUPV, UMH’s principal has highlighted that his intention is to defend public universities and its vital importance in the development of society and its environment. In relation to the recent publication of the CYD Foundation's annual report, he emphasised that it is essential to reinforce the policy of scholarships and study grants. "We are going to try to get the central government and the Generalitat to make an effort to increase the budget for these grants, both for studies and international mobility, aimed at students, but also at the rest of the groups that comprise the universities". 

The president of the CRUPV also added: “We face a period in which we implement the new Law with all the remaining unknowns unresolved. This concern, which extends to all the principal's teams, begins with the funding required to adapt to the law”. In this regard, he underlined that "the much-needed renewal of the teaching workforces will have an impact on the increase in the universities' Social Security costs and this increase will have to be reflected in the funding for the coming academic years. Likewise, universities are already suffering from the payment of Social Security contributions for students on internships, payments that companies are not responsible for and which the central government has not considered in its budgets or in facilitating their administrative management”.

In addition to the problem of the challenge of university underfunding, Juan José Ruiz suggests that other historical shortcomings suffered by the university system should be added. "It is necessary that, for once, coherence prevails and a map of degrees is designed in which, responsibly, they are organised in accordance with social demand and the adaptation of the number of graduates to the labour market. I do not want to avoid the part that falls to us, the universities, as the correct use of our budgets is also a commitment of the management teams themselves," he said.

The outgoing president of the CRUPV and principal of the UPV, José Capilla, noted that the year of his presidency has been characterised, among other issues, by the failed negotiation in the first half of 2023 of a future Multi-Annual Financing Plan (PPF), the negotiations to determine the funding for 2023 that were not resolved until late July with the outgoing Valencian government, the negotiation of the 2024 budget, resolved with the new Valencian government during the autumn, and the entry into force in April of the new one. It has also been marked by the beginning of its "difficult, uncertain and inadequately funded implementation, as well as the difficulties that the state regulation introduces for the management of both curricular and extracurricular internships", he indicated.

The Conference of Principals of Valencian Public Universities was created on 18 February 2003 to coordinate the action policies of the five university institutions.