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Every year, almost a third of Spanish university students move to another province to pursue higher education, and many housing options are available to them (halls of residence, shared apartments, student residences, etc.). From a pedagogical standpoint, the question of the formative potential of each of these spaces arises. Since their birth more than six centuries ago, Colegios Mayores (a special model of Spanish halls of residence) have contributed significantly to the development of Spanish higher education and to promoting culture. However, there has been little research into these educational institutions, meaning that their great cultural and pedagogical legacy is unknown. The aim of this study is to analyse the educational value of the Colegios Mayores as formative settings where the educational function of the university remains alive. With this purpose, from a hermeneutic-interpretative approach, these centres are analysed from the perspective of both liberal and character education. This work concludes that Colegios Mayores are formative spaces at the forefront of education that offer their students a setting with a profound university experience, where the search for truth, the synthesis of knowledge, the encounter with tradition, and the formation of critical thinking are combined with opportunities for the cultivation of virtue, thus achieving an authentic comprehensive formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]