The Spanish Royal Household has confirmed in an official statement that Princess Leonor will study for a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science at the Carlos III University of Madrid, on the Getafe campus.
The announcement came after months of speculation and confirms that Princess Leonor passed the selection process for students who completed their high school education abroad, receiving a favorable decision from the Evaluation Committee.
UC3M is one of Spain’s most prestigious public universities in the fields of law and international studies, with high admission grade requirements and a strong focus on global perspectives.
The degree program that Princess Leonor will pursue includes courses in Political Science, Humanities, Law, Economics, Sociology, History, and International Relations.
In her first year, she will take courses including Fundamentals of Political Science, Legal Theory, Introduction to Sociology, and Research Methodology in the Social Sciences, among others.
According to the statement, she will balance her studies with her institutional commitments as heir apparent, just as she did during her high school studies and her three years at military academies.
Leonor’s path to this point has followed a very similar trajectory to that of her father. She attended the Santa María de los Rosales School in Aravaca, completed an international baccalaureate at UWC Atlantic College in Wales, and then received training in the three armed services: the General Military Academy of Zaragoza, the Naval Military School of Marín, and the General Air Academy of San Javier.
Felipe VI followed a similar path, although his military service did not include the international missions under NATO that his daughter has experienced. After college, he studied Law and Economics at the Autonomous University of Madrid and then earned a master’s degree in International Relations from Georgetown.
For Leonor, the possibility of pursuing such an international postgraduate degree is also on the horizon, although she will make that decision in due course.
This summer, Leonor is returning to Madrid after more than five years away, spent between Wales and the military academies. Her sister Sofía, who is currently at Forward College in Lisbon, will continue her studies in Political Science and International Relations in Paris in September.
—