Barcelona Leads the Way for Spanish Universities in World Rankings

This year, the University of Barcelona climbed 29 places to become the highest-rated Spanish university in the Times Higher Education University World Rankings.

According to The Times, the University of Barcelona has been improving year on year, moving from 184th in 2007, 186th in 2008, 171st in 2009, and now, after a particularly great improvement, occupying 142nd place in the global leader board.

While the top spots continue to be dominated by universities American universities, one other Spanish institution also made it onto the list, which recognises only the 200 best universities in the world – Pompeu Fabra, also in Barcelona, was placed 155th, making its debut on the list.

The ratings are calculated according to 13 different criteria which are summarised under the following headings:

• Teaching - the learning environment (worth 30 per cent of the overall ranking score)
• Research - volume, income and reputation (worth 30 per cent)
• Citations - research influence (worth 32.5 per cent)
• Industry income - innovation (worth 2.5 per cent)
• International mix - staff and students (worth 5 per cent)

Both Spanish universities gained particularly high scores for Citations, while International Mix and Research were the weakest points for the University of Barcelona and Pompeu Fabra, respectively.

Lists according to subject are still in progress, but are set to be published fully by October 28th. Despite failing to appear on the record for Engineering & Technology, the University of Barcelona has been declared number 44 in Life Sciences and 49 in Clinical, Pre-Clinical & Health, which is very promising for the impending publication of rankings for Physical Sciences, Social Sciences and Arts & Humanities.

For more information on how the lists were compiled and to see rankings by region or subject, go to The Times Higer Education Pages.