Higher education in Spain is available in both public and private universities and business schools. Today Spain has 47 public and 10 private universities. Spanish universities have a long history: the first university was founded in Salamanca in 1218, University of Barcelona – in 1450, and Granada – in 1526.
The educational process at Spanish universities includes three cycles.
First – Diplomatura – lasts 3 years and leads to a qualification Diplomado, or Arcquitecto Tecnico, or Ingeniero Tecnico (the last two are the architecture and technical skills). Learning content in this period is practical and can continue to work as practitioners middle managers. For example, a manager in a travel agency, a teacher of primary school, social service workers.
At the end of the second cycle – it takes 2-3 years – Awarded qualification Licenciado, Arquitecto or Ingeniero.
Licenciatura (first plus second cycle education) include law, business management, economic, and engineering, pharmacy, mathematics, education and other fields. Licenciatura programs can be offered either as a separate two-year courses of the second cycle, or as a five-year program, covering both the first and second cycle education. The third – a two-year – a cycle of preparing for a degree Doctorado and can be correlated with the master’s and doctoral.
The University usually includes a large number of professional schools of different specialties (design, hospitality, art, etc.).
There are four types of training units that make up the university
- university departments (facultades universitarias) – universities, where we study non-technical theoretical subjects. Education for them covers all three cycles of higher education;
- School of Engineering (escuelas tecnicas superiores), which are, on the contrary, technical orientation, but also provide for all three cycles of higher education;
- university schools (escuelas universitarias), having a definite orientation and can only bring the student up to the first level of higher education (although they may be offered by the program and the second and third cycles, for which they receive a diploma at the University, which are accredited);
- university colleges (colegios universitarias), as well as schools that provide education to the program only the first level.
These programs are generally similar to traditional university programs, and do not give career guidance. Tuition and fees at public universities in Spain, most of the large autonomy set by local authorities and usually varies from 700 to 2,000 euros a year, rarely rising above 4,000 euros. In private universities, the cost per year ranges from 4,000 to 10,000 euros per year.
In addition to public and private universities, Spain has a large number of well-known business schools such as ESADE Escuela Superior de Administracion y Direccion de Empresas, IEDE, Institute for Executive Development, etc., the quality of education that is at the level of world standards. Usually business schools offer a number of programs in the English language, which allows you to get a quality education in Spain, not only for students fluent in Spanish.