Foundation > Introduction and history

The Colegios Mayores MAEC-AECI Foundation is a non profit-making Foundation promoted and protected by the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation of the Spanish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation.

Amongst many objectives, the Foundation aims to provide a place of residence and a complementary environment of cultural education not only to post-graduate, PHD and Master University students but also to teachers and investigators from all countries with which Spain maintains cultural, educational, scientific and cooperative relations.

To this aim there are two places of residence in Madrid in which people of different backgrounds from a total of 60 different nationalities reside.  The Colegio Mayor Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe houses a significant percentage of grant-aided students from Latin-America, while the Colegio Mayor Nuestra Señora de África gives priority to students from African and Asian countries.

At the same time, the Foundation occupies itself with the organisation and promotion of a wide range of activities: congresses, forums, seminars and courses throughout the academic year. Additionally, vacancies are available so that the free configuration modules of all university degrees may be undertaken.
On top of this, special preparation for entry into the Spanish Diplomatic Service are given in the residences.

The Foundation has numerous agreements of collaboration with various universities, foundations, institutions and companies in order to achieve the aforementioned aims.