The mayor of Vigo, Abel Caballero, has been demanding for years that the city of Vigo should have its own Faculty of Medicine.

The Xunta de Galicia insists that there must be “a single faculty” of public Medicine in Galicia— the one in Santiago de Compostela— determined that it should remain the only faculty, even though the city of Santiago is smaller than Vigo in area, population, and number of hospitals.

For now, the Regional Minister of Education says that the best option is to “pool resources” and not fragment medical training, reaching an agreement so that the final years, 4th and 5th, are taught both in Santiago and in Vigo and A Coruña. According to a 2015 agreement between the Xunta, the USC, and the other Galician universities, sixth-year medical students are already distributed across several hospitals in Galicia. Specifically, 100 places are assigned for 6th-year students in Vigo’s hospitals.

There is a preliminary agreement among the rectors of USC, UVigo, and UDC to create teaching units in Vigo and A Coruña. In these units, at least 50% of the teaching staff for the second cycle would come from the universities of Vigo and A Coruña.

However, Abel Caballero states that this agreement is not enough, and he expects to achieve that the first three years of the degree are also taught in Vigo, due to the city’s population size, its hospitals, and the ongoing need for doctors, for whom there are always available positions.