Organization

The Spanish educational system is managed by the government through the Ministry of Education and Culture, and in collaboration with each Autonomous Community. The Universities Council manages the public universities, and the chairman is the Government Ministry.
The first year of university is known as the C.O.U. (Curso de Orientation Universitaria). The purpose of the C.O.U. is to guide the students education to enable them to later choose an area of study. There are 4 areas of study: sciences / technology, biology / health, human / social sciences, and literature/ humanities.
In Spain there are 49 public universities, 11 private universities, 6 Catholic universities and 2 international universities. The academic year goes from October to June.