The Government approved on Friday the declaration of the expansion of the CEU Beato Luis Belda University, part of the San Pablo CEU University Foundation, as a Project of Special Strategic Interest (PEIE), with the incorporation of the plot located at 3 Son Serra Parera Street, known as the Son Serra Perera estate. This expansion, integrated into the university project that had already been declared a PEIE on September 25, 2025, is designed to complete the campus with new institutional spaces and facilities for teaching and research. The Son Serra Perera estate, acquired on February 5, 2026, by the San Pablo CEU University Foundation, will house administrative and faculty offices, a library, an exhibition and conference hall, and outdoor spaces for students, as explained at a press conference by the Government spokesperson. With the PEIE declaration and in accordance with Decree Law 8/2025, the primary use of the plot will automatically become educational.

San Gayetano School and the San Pablo CEU University Foundation have announced the creation of the Balearic Islands Higher Teacher Training Institute, a new center dedicated to the continuing education of teachers in the region. The project is part of CEU's strategy for establishing a presence in the Balearic Islands, which also includes the launch of the Beato Luis Belda University Center, affiliated with CEU San Pablo University—a process marked by political and academic controversy. Meanwhile, CEU's university project in Mallorca has already begun forging external partnerships. The Beato Luis Belda University Center has signed an agreement with RCE Mallorca so that its students can complete academic internships at the club's facilities, such as the stadium, the training complex, and the Mallorca Sport Clinic. The agreement, valid until 2028, will allow students to immerse themselves in the dynamics of a top-division club and reinforces CEU's strategy of associating its educational offerings with prestigious professional environments.

The establishment of the CEU Beat Luis Belda affiliated center in Palma has reopened the debate on the growth of private universities in the Balearic Islands and the conditions under which new strategic degrees such as Medicine and Nursing are being authorized. Before this discussion is addressed in depth, the rector of CEU San Pablo, Rosa Visiedo, defends the project, rejects the notion that it consolidates an elitist model, and asserts its role within the university system. The project, promoted by CEU San Pablo University and planned for the 2026-2027 academic year, will be located in the former Riskal building and will involve a 40 million euro investment in the renovation of the space. Rector Visiedo argues that the decision to establish a presence in the Balearic Islands responds to an objective need within the healthcare system. "We conducted a study, and the Balearic Islands were identified as one of the regions with the greatest need for nursing and medical training places, as well as a significant shortage of professionals," he states. According to Visiedo, the archipelago is "the second region with the fewest nursing places per capita and the region with the fewest places to study medicine." This account aligns with the government's discourse, which has justified opening up to private universities to compensate for the limitations of the public system.

RCE Mallorca and the future Beato Luis Belda University Center, affiliated with CEU San Pablo University, have announced a strategic collaboration agreement that will unite both institutions until June 2028. The aim is to promote sport, academic training, and the professional integration of students within a high-performance environment. The agreement will allow CEU Beato Luis Belda students to complete academic internships at the club's facilities, such as thestadium, the Sports City and the RCE Mallorca Sport Clinic, where they can integrate into the daily life of a First Division club and acquire direct professional experience.

The rector of the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB), Jaume Carot, has welcomed the arrival of new private universities in the Balearic Islands. "The novelty is ADEMA as a new university and, in addition, the operation of an affiliated center (Beato Luis Belda) at CEU San Pablo," said Carot, who also admitted that he would prefer there were no more private centers: "We are a staunch defender of public education, but it's not within my purview," he added. Currently, he noted, there are already two private centers: Alberta Giménez, affiliated with the Pontifical University of Comillas, and the Tourism Center at Felipe Moreno, affiliated with Antonio de Nebrija University for years. What he considers relevant, in relation to CEU, is that "a university is arriving that, within the landscape of private universities, is not among the worst; some only respond to a business model, and this is not the case with CEU San Pablo." Furthermore, it incorporates degrees in the health sciences.

The PSIB (Socialist Party of the Balearic Islands) denounced, during the appearance of the Minister of Education, Antoni Vera, before the Balearic Parliament on university policy, the drastic drop in the number of beneficiaries of tuition assistance granted by the Balearic Government. The number of recipients fell from 2,624 in the 2022-2023 academic year to just 326 in 2024-2025, an 8% reduction. It should be noted that in 2022-2023 these were scholarships, while in 2024-2025 they became exemptions, meaning students did not have to make any advance payments. During the same period, the number of beneficiaries of grants from the Ministry of Education also decreased, from 3,914 in 2022-2023 to 2,468 in 2023-2024—a 36.9% drop—and 3,100 in 2024-2025. In his response, Antoni Vera accused the Pact government of having "taken advantage of the Ukrainian decree-law to grant aid without any requirements to everyone" and emphasized that "they left the reserve fund at zero for the 2023-2024 academic year." He argued that the current administration created "a serious system of exemptions, not scholarships," as demanded by the UIB Student Council, and added that students "should not pay any advance." He also asserted that the new model takes into account "income, but also academic excellence and effort," in defense of a "culture of hard work."

The Faculty of Medicine at the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB) has pledged to ensure that the public university hospitals within the IB-Salut network maintain their exclusive affiliation with the public university and are not negatively impacted by the arrival of private universities seeking to offer medical degrees in the Balearic Islands. This comes at a time when CEU San Pablo, Adema (either as an independent university or affiliated with Isabel I University), and the Felipe Moreno Higher Education Center (affiliated with Nebrija University) are all looking to establish themselves in Mallorca with health-related degrees, offering nursing programs.

The Beato Luis Belda University Center, affiliated with CEU San Pablo University, has stated that it will give priority access to students residing in the Balearic Islands, who are expected to obtain higher points in the selection process. However, the measure will only be applied if it is finally implemented in Mallorca: the project is subject to obtaining favorable reports on the quality of the study plans, verification of degrees by the Council of Universities, and final approval by the Government. It has not yet been specified how residency in the Islands will be assessed. Meanwhile, CEU is already working on several options to house students from abroad. It is considering building its own residence hall that would operate as a College of Residence, a plan that already includes three possible locations in Palma, but does not provide further details. During the first year of operation, apartments and residential alternatives would be used to house those who require it, which is estimated to be 30% of the students.

The agreement reached by the Formentera Government on September 25th to reclassify the land of the former Riskal building to accelerate the establishment of the private Faculty of Medicine has been revoked, according to various legal sources consulted by ARA Baleares. The modification of the land's planning status, which has gone from leisure to educational facilities, "has been made during the validity of the ddecree law, and that doesn't change anything, but this action isn't enough," explains a source from the Administration who requested anonymity. "Now a series of procedures are required, and the most important thing is to apply for a license, and obviously the City Council can't grant a license to a project based on a regulation that no longer exists," confirms the same source.

The private faculty promoted by the Catholic Foundation CEU San Pablo has achieved the reclassification of the land of the former Riskal, on Antonia Martínez Fiol Street in Palma, in just 9 days (two of which were weekends). The publication in the Official Gazette of the Balearic Islands (BOIB) of the agreement of the Governing Council of September 25 confirms the impressive speed with which the promoters of this training center have obtained not only the change of use of the land, but also the full authorization to carry out the faculty where the degrees in Medicine, Nursing, and Nursing will be taught.

The government has taken no more than 20 days to implement the decree it approved to accelerate projects and has already granted the status of "special strategic interest" to the private Faculty of Medicine and other health studies promoted by the Beato Luis Belda University Center, affiliated with the Catholic University of San Pablo CEU. This declaration allows it to be located in the well-known Riskal building, a business project that failed and had failed to consolidate any of the activities it hosted.