Spain's LOSU Law: How the 2023 Reform Capped Tuition and Cut Resit Fees

What LOSU Changed

Spain passed the Ley Orgánica del Sistema Universitario (LOSU) in 2023, replacing the older LOU framework that had governed Spanish public universities since 2001. LOSU covers university governance, minimum scholarship spending, limits on temporary faculty contracts, and rules affecting what students pay to enroll.

The law also sets a minimum share of each university's budget aside for scholarships and student support, and it tightens rules on how many teaching staff a university keeps on short-term contracts rather than permanent positions. Both changes sit alongside the tuition provisions as part of the same reform package, aimed at making public universities more stable for students and staff. Implementation runs over several years, since ministries and regional governments phase in the funding and staffing changes gradually rather than all at once.

Capping Tuition Price Growth

Spain does not set a single national tuition price. Each autonomous region (comunidad autónoma) sets its own public university price decree every year, which is why tuition for the same degree differs from one region to another. LOSU pushes toward narrowing this gap and limiting how much regions raise prices year to year, working alongside the national framework that sets minimum and maximum price bands regions stay within.

Cutting the Cost of Repeating a Subject

Under the older system, a student who failed a subject and had to repeat it (segunda matrícula) paid a significantly higher price per credit than on the first attempt, and the price climbed further on a third or fourth attempt. This penalized students who struggled with one subject rather than helping them recover. The direction under LOSU and related regional price decrees is to reduce or remove this repeat-enrollment penalty, bringing the cost of a resit closer to the price of a first attempt.

The pace and size of this reduction differs by region, since each autonomous community still issues its own annual price decree implementing the national framework.

What It Means for EU Students

EU students at Spanish public universities pay the same regional public price as Spanish students, since EU non-discrimination rules already require equal treatment on tuition regardless of these reforms. LOSU changes the price itself and the size of the resit penalty, which affects EU and Spanish students in the same region equally.

How to Check What Applies to You

Find your region's current public university price decree (decreto de precios públicos) through your university's admissions office or the regional education department, since this document sets the actual euro figures for your course and region. Ask specifically about resit and repeat-enrollment prices when comparing universities in different regions, since this is one of the areas where LOSU-driven reform is changing the numbers.

• Compare price decrees across two or three regions if you have flexibility in where you apply, since the gap between regions is still meaningful.

• Ask your target university how the resit price compares with the first-attempt price for the current academic year.

• Keep a copy of your region's price decree with your enrollment paperwork, since it is the reference document if a fee gets disputed.