The presence of true competition in university accademic offering in Spain

Abstract

Public and private Universities in Spain compete for the same market under very
different sets of rules. Public Universities have approximately 75% of their cost
financed. Their financing is not considered as public aid which is non-compliant
with European law given that subsidized education in the EU is considered to be a
Non-Economic Service of Public Interest. However, a sensu contrario, education
paid by the student is considered to be an Economic Service. Regulation aimed at
facilitating paid Education provision applies and principles for authorisation should
establish that only be requested as an exception. Quite the contrary, Spanish and
especially regional governments’ legislation requires too many authorization procedures
that restrict in a non-organic way the development of private Universities.
Some of these procedures contain requirements expressly forbidden by law.
In addition, Spanish University financing system is unfair, inefficient and does
not foster competition allowing situations of abuse of dominant position when public
universities use financing for purposes other than official teaching and research.
On the contrary, there are other university systems, such as the British system,
which directly finances students in the form of loans and establishes its repayment to
start only once students reach a certain level of income