College major
A Colegio Mayor is a residential center attached to a university. These centers have different characteristics depending on the country, for example in the absence or presence of religious confessionalism. Halls of residence differ from university residences in that, in addition to accommodation and meals, they offer cultural, academic, sports and - in Spain - religious activities. The objective that these institutions have set themselves in Spain is to promote, through coexistence, the academic, scientific, cultural, sports, human and social training of college students and to create an adequate environment for study, while stimulating and encourage participation and co-responsibility in its operation.
In Spain, the Residence Halls are non-profit institutions whose purpose is to serve society. They contribute to the education of those who have a vocation to actively participate in the cultural, political and socioeconomic development of the country.
History in Spain
Historically, especially in Spanish universities from the Late Middle Ages to the end of the XVIII century, a Colegio Mayor was a institution that imparted university education of higher degrees (bachelor's and doctoral degrees), in addition to providing accommodation. Sometimes they were a kind of extension of the university and other times they were the seed of a university. They were often patron foundations with a very specific purpose (for example, the Colegio Mayor de Santiago el Zebedeo in Salamanca was created by the Archbishop of Santiago de Compostela, Alonso de Fonseca, for students from Galicia).
They worked with great autonomy. The professors were going to give classes, although then the exams had to be taken at the university. The schoolboys themselves governed their College in administrative and economic aspects and appointed rector from among them. The students of the most renowned schools boasted throughout their lives of having belonged to them.
In Spain in the XVI century there were six Halls of Residence:
- Four in Salamanca
- San Bartolomé or Old College (1401)
- Colegio Mayor de Cuenca (1500)
- Colegio Mayor de Santiago el Zebedeo (1519)
- Oviedo College (1521)
- One in Valladolid
- Colegio Mayor Santa Cruz (1482)
- One in Alcala de Henares
- Colegio Mayor de San Ildefonso (1499)
The Royal College of San Bartolomé and Santiago de Granada, founded in 1649, is the only College that has been open since it was founded. It is the oldest in Spain (with the exception of the Colegio de San Clemente, for Spaniards in Bologna).
There were also Colegios Menores (or simply Colegios), where the lower grade (bachiller) was given, which was enough by then to practice a trade.
Founded and endowed by high-ranking clergy, the colleges were originally intended for students of merit and modest backgrounds. In San Ildefonso, students could be portionistas scholarship holders whose studies were paid for by an institution or by members of the high nobility, sometimes as assistants to the young members of those noble houses who came to study. Both had to face eight courses of one year each (arts studies, canon law, theology).
The halls of residence deviated from their initial destination as the places they offered were monopolized by the sons of the Spanish political elite (aristocracy, nobility and letrados). From the middle of the XVI century it was practically impossible to obtain a college scholarship if you did not belong to the nobility or if you were someone else's to the circles of privilege and nepotism controlled by the old schoolboys, a phenomenon that reached total rigidity from the middle of the XVII century.
In a context of multiplication of titles and a shortage of positions to be held, the latter ensured, by co-optation, access to the most prestigious colleges, the best option as a springboard to access brilliant careers in the highest positions of the ecclesiastical circles or in councils and hearings. For a thriving system of clientelism and patronage, the residence halls became "a formidable machine for reproducing the royal servants among the children of the letterados", contributing to a extensive recruitment of positions and the closure of the state apparatus. Thus, these letrados represented 57.9% of the members of the Council of Castile under Philip II (1578-1598-1621), 68.5% under Philip IV (1605-1621- 1665) and 72.5% with Carlos II (1661-1665-1700). Undoubtedly, the nickname Colegio Mayor was born from this fact, which was ironically applied to that institution.
The University itself did not get rid of this hoarding of positions and such a thing also happened with the professorships, in which the "colegiales", put an end to the previous and healthy "meritocracy" exchanging it for a "cradle" elitism. As an example, you can see the list of rectors of Salamanca given by Alejandro Vidal y Díaz in which, from 1610, there are very few rectors who are not nobles or sons of nobles, when in previous dates the exact opposite occurred.
The Colegios Mayores in Spain were temporarily abolished as a consequence of the Enlightenment reforms, in 1798[citation required] and reopened after the Civil War and Franco's rise to power. The goal was to form a ruling class for his regime.[citation needed] However, far from perpetuating the regime, many became foci from which critical thought, dissent and political activism radiated, providing a space for opposition.[citation needed] With the fall of the Franco regime, this facet of the University Halls of Residence crystallized when they became the protagonists of the Movida Madrileña.[citation required]
Colleges in the universities of Spanish America
Currently University Halls of Residence
Currently, the Residence Halls are centers that provide accommodation and promote the training of university students. They can be directly founded by a University or privately owned, but they must always be attached to one. The residence halls are normally located in the immediate vicinity of the campus and usually offer a series of services demanded by university students: accommodation, meals, laundry, but above all complementary activities.
It is the latter that today differentiate the University Halls of Residence from the Student Residences.
- La Spanish law 49/2002 recognises university colleges as entities of special protection for their charitable-docent character and although they have to be economically viable, they are mainly non-profit entities.
- The major colleges are legally recognized university centers in Spain, integrated at the University. Hence the Rector confirms the appointment of the director of the centre.
- The major schools in Spain must have a training project aimed at complementing the knowledge that students learn in their faculty. In this sense they are "learning communities in which young people can come into contact with different disciplines that contribute to their holistic formation: theater, sport, volunteering, photography, cultural travel, debate, tertulia, poetry, music, conferences..."
- Much of the weight of the organization falls on the same residents who are organized through commissions and assemblies thus participating in the management of the centers.
In Latin America these institutions have the name of University Residence, much more appropriate for their current function, since classes are not given on their premises (they are not Colleges). They also receive the names of pensioner or university pension.
Spanish colleges and hazing
In Spain, each beginning of the course, university hazing receives special attention from the media, a sign of the growing sensitivity of public opinion towards it. College Hazing Has Spurred Statements in the Senate Archived August 6, 2018, at the Wayback Machine at the initiative of the University Residence Halls themselves, which for years have promoted initiatives to address the problem and seek solutions, both within their centers and in collaboration with the authorities and administrations. Along these same lines, the National Police developed a Plan in 2015 to combat hazing in collaboration with the Residence Halls.
In 2013 a study on hazing was published jointly edited by the Council of Halls of Residence of Spain and the Universidad Pontificia de Comillas. But the problem is still far from a solution, and each beginning of the course continues to affect thousands of students who join university life in residential contexts (colleges of residence and university residences). The most complete work focused on the Spanish reality is Las novatadas. Abuse as fun, directed by the anthropologist Ignacio Fernández de Mata, published in 2021 by Mc-Graw-Hill. <