[4] In 1504, Pope Julius II approved the foundation of a university in Santiago[5] but "the bull for its creation was not granted by Clement VII until 1526".

In terms of human resources, the university has more than 2,000 teachers involved in study and research, over 42,000 students, and more than 1,000 people working in administration and services.

The university seal is enriched with the Royal Crown over the coat of arms of Castilla, León and Galicia, as well as the most important founders' emblems.

Immediately, the university recuperated to its plan of studies disciplines that had been previously given to certain religious congregations, including academic degrees and schools for Experimental Physics or Chemistry.

The beginning of the 20th century produced a new generation of intellectuals closely tied to the university who would make up the core of a revival in the cultural life of Galicia.

Definitively, it is a period of great quantitative and quality changes with an important increase in infrastructures along with the regionalisation of studies in search for a best adaptation to the Galician reality.

The military rising against the Republic and the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War meant a period of change in the University of Santiago.

The military coups dominated the city council, imposing on the university a new rector and new norms such as praying before and after each lesson.

Precisely, the Santiago de Compostela anti-Franco opposition came from "middle class intellectuals" and students of the university and not from the working-class movements, as happened in Coruña, Vigo or Ferrol.

Prior to that, the only institution which shared "Official Degree Studies" in Galicia was the "School of Naval and Industrial Engineers" of Ferrol, which was created by a ministerial order under the initiative of General Francisco Franco in the early 1960s.

More recent data in the library website (busc.usc.es) In 2006, the university along with the Consortium of Santiago de Compostela established the Program ConCiencia.