The University of Barcelona improves its leading position in the QS World University Rankings 2018

Regarding the indicators, the University of Barcelona stands out in academic reputation and in graduate employability.
Regarding the indicators, the University of Barcelona stands out in academic reputation and in graduate employability.
Institutional
(08/06/2017)

Catalan universities are once more leading centres in Spain in a prestigious international ranking. This is seen in the results of the new edition of the QS World University Rankings (2018), in which the University of Barcelona improves its position and becomes the first one regarding Spain, holding the 156th position worldwide and the 64th in Europe. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona is among the top 200 worldwide universities again, holding the 195th position (3rd in Spain).

Regarding the indicators, the University of Barcelona stands out in academic reputation and in graduate employability.
Regarding the indicators, the University of Barcelona stands out in academic reputation and in graduate employability.
Institutional
08/06/2017

Catalan universities are once more leading centres in Spain in a prestigious international ranking. This is seen in the results of the new edition of the QS World University Rankings (2018), in which the University of Barcelona improves its position and becomes the first one regarding Spain, holding the 156th position worldwide and the 64th in Europe. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona is among the top 200 worldwide universities again, holding the 195th position (3rd in Spain).

In this edition, the University of Barcelona has improved 4 positions compared to last year, going up for two years in a row and getting closer to the top 150. Since 2014, the UB has moved from number 178 to 156. Considering there are 26.000 universities in the world, the UB is listed in the 1% of the top university centers, according to the QS World University Rankings. The UAB has escalated 8 positions until reaching the 195th, listed within the top 1% as well. 

Regarding the indicators, the University of Barcelona stands out in academic reputation, where it gets the 82nd worldwide position, and in graduate employability, where it gets the 170th position. UAB outstands in reputation as well (107) and citations per faculty (189).

The QS World University Rankings, apart from assessing the reputation, which accounts for a 40%, and graduate employability, a 10%, calculates the scientific citations per faculty (20%), the faculty-student ratio (20%), and the international faculty ratio (5%) and international student ratio (5%). For the first time, this year QS analysed the scientific citations of the period 2011-2016, increasing the study from 5 to 6 years. 

Most of the scientific production at the University of Barcelona during 2011-2015 is focused on the area of Medicine and Life Sciences, with 12.804 publications, followed by Natural Sciences (7.237) and Technology and Engineering (3.472).

World top ten

Four American universities hold the leading positions in the QS World University Rankings 2018: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Harvard University and the California Institute of Technology. The first European university in the ranking is the University of Cambridge, holding the 5th position. The other universities to complete the list of the top worldwide institutions are the University of Oxford, University College London, the Imperial College London, University of Chicago and ETH Zurich.

Regarding Spain, the Complutense University of Madrid (233), the University of Navarra (270), the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (275), University Carlos III de Madrid (281) and Pompeu Fabra University (296) are listed among the top 300 worldwide universities