The public universities of the Galician University System are structured in university campuses, created as territorial organisational complexes and spaces of integration and coexistence of the members of the university community.
Since 1495, the city of Santiago de Compostela was the headquarters of the Galician university. After the approval of the General Education Law in 1970, the integration of several higher education centres was promoted, as well as the creation of university colleges in the cities of A Coruña, Lugo, Ourense and Vigo and a progressive decentralisation of the academic offer with faculties and schools distributed in seven campuses dependent on the USC.
After the approval of the Law of University Organisation in 1989, the campuses of Ourense, Pontevedra and Vigo were integrated into the University of Vigo, and those of Ferrol and A Coruña into the University of A Coruña. Since then, the USC has two campuses, one in Santiago de Compostela and the other in the city of Lugo.