... The anointed are sometimes relatives by blood or marriage of decision makers on the faculty, giving added meaning to the term "inbreeding." Inbreeding is causing scientific and academic quality in Spain to decline at a gigantic pace," says Luis F. Rull, a professor of theoretical physics at the University of Seville I don't say that there might not have been better people who didn't apply, maybe for reasons of inbreeding. Feudal Arrangement For some, inbreeding is just one aspect of a larger problem in a university system that rewards political skill and connections over academic merit. Temptations to continue academic inbreeding will remain once the bill passes, Ms. Cabrera concedes. Only a few scattered examples exist of voluntary and systematic resistance to inbreeding within the university system. ...