The University of Barcelona is still among the top Spanish universities despite a drop in positions

Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU).
Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU).
Institutional
(15/08/2017)

The University of Barcelona, the Catalan university with the largest number of students, is still leading the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) in Spain, despite a drop in positions. In the 2017 edition of the ranking, the UB is listed between positions 201-300, in the same range as Pompeu Fabra University and the University of Granada. In this range, all universities are listed in alphabetical order instead of by results.

Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU).
Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU).
Institutional
15/08/2017

The University of Barcelona, the Catalan university with the largest number of students, is still leading the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) in Spain, despite a drop in positions. In the 2017 edition of the ranking, the UB is listed between positions 201-300, in the same range as Pompeu Fabra University and the University of Granada. In this range, all universities are listed in alphabetical order instead of by results.

The rector of the University of Barcelona, Joan Elias, notes that the results of the University of Barcelona and the other Spanish centers are “positive” if thinking about the situation the universities are carrying out their activity, which is marked by a “notorious underfunding, impossibility to develop teacher policies to stabilize and renew the staff and not enough commitment to the higher education system”. “Without investment and trust in our universities we cannot improve these results. The effects of the economic crisis and cuts in education are clear”, ended the rector.

Once more, the world ranking is led by the American universities. The first positions are held by Harvard, Stanford and Cambridge, the first European university in the list. The Top Ten is completed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); the University of California, Berkeley; Princeton; Oxford; Columbia; the California Institute of Technology and the University of Chicago. The 301-400 group holds four Spanish universities: the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid; Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; Complutense University of Madrid and the University of Santiago de Compostela. The Universitat Politècnica de València, Jaume I University, University of the Basque Country and the University of Valencia are in the 401-500 group. There are a total of 11 Spanish institutions listed in the 2017 edition of the ranking.

The Academic Ranking of World Universities establishes rankings in the fields of Natural Sciences and Mathematics; Engineering/ Computer Sciences; Life Sciences and Agriculture; Clinical Medicine and Pharmacy, and Social Sciences. Also, it publishes rankings in the fields of Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Computer Sciences, and Economics and Business. The methodology used in ARWU includes an analysis of bibliometrics in six indicators: the number of relevant awards (Novel, Fields medal) received by the students and the teaching staff of the university, the most cited researchers in the 21 research areas determined by Thomson ISI; the articles that were published in Nature and Science; the recorded articles in the Science Citation Index - Expanded (SCIE) and in the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) and last, the academic performance according to the dimensions of the institution.

ARWU, which lists the top 500 universities worldwide, provides exact detail of the top 100 universities. Regarding the rest of universities, this ranking lists them within ranges, alphabetically ordered regardless of their exact position.