Libertad ideológica y religiosa, derecho a la educación y enseñanza superior: algunas reflexiones sobre el reconocimiento de Universidades privadas y el régimen previsto en el Acuerdo sobre Enseñanza y Asuntos Culturales

The Spanish College Education system must be designed under the educational system prin-ciples, as it was established in article 27 of the Spanish Constitution. In this constitutional provision, the right to education and teaching freedom were protected at the same level, which results in a model where education is conceived as a public service. Private initiative, to enhan-ce the system, coexists in this public service with the commitment of the public administration to establish the necessary measures and resources to guarantee the effective exercise of the right. In this model, the freedom to create educational Centers is a keystone to facilitate private initiative, but also to address specific substantive issues that have to do with ideological and religious freedom. In this context is the possibility of establishing private universities and, within this category, confessional Universities.In general, confessional Universities must follow the legal regime established for private Univer-sities, although the Organic Law of Universities, 2001, in its 4th Additional Provision, introdu-ced an exception that had to be reviewed by the Constitutional Court. It was the exemption of a recognition Act for the foundation of Catholic Universities. Our Constitutional Court declared this exemption unconstitutional. From this perspective, this study aims to analyze the reason in which exemption was vindicated –specific provisions of the Teaching and Cultural Affairs Agreement, signed between the Spanish State and the Catholic Church in 1979–, the real mea-ning and scope of this Agreement and the difficulties of its constitutional insertion. The study concludes with a proposal by the author on how the recognition regime should be interpreted both for Colleges and for the degrees homologation and recognition