Life in Barcelona

We are a public university, we provide quality training and undergo research, and we have a commitment to society.

We are the main university in the State, recognized by international rankings, with a community of nearly 10,000 people committed to values ​​such as freedom, equality, justice and social responsibility. In addition to our close historical ties with the city of Barcelona and Catalonia, we are a global university, present throughout the world, and one of the promoters of the new European university.

In the 2024-2025 academic year, 17.640 students have chosen the UB as their first option. The demand rate of the UB stands at 1.7 (applications in first preference/demand of places).

We are a great community, and thanks to our academic offer we educate more than 60,000 students every year. We have a greta team of almost 6,400 teachers and researchers, who together with more than 2,600 administration and services staff will accompany you during the different university stages. 

Barcelona is our main campus, but our roots are also on the metropolitan area and other areas of Catalonia.

We are an eminently metropolitan university, with seventeen faculties spread across different campuses: in the city center of Barcelona, ​​Diagonal and Mundet, as well as in the cities of Santa Coloma de Gramenet, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Sant Joan Despí and Badalona . Our projection extends to other areas of Catalonia, thanks to the collaboration with fifteen university hospitals and other research and transfer facilities.

We are connected with society from different areas and we promote the transfer of knowledge.

One of our objectives is to transfer knowledge to society and offer quality services to companies that facilitate the connection between the university and research environment and the business world. We also promote solidarity actions and continued education. There are a series of non-profit entities that ​​carry out these tasks under the direction of the University of Barcelona.

We are part of the history and life of Catalonia. One of our objectives is to enrich and project our heritage to look to the future.

Founded in 1450, the UB has been present in the main political, social and economic events that have marked the country. Our classrooms have trained many of the protagonists of cultural and scientific life. We have welcomed and recognized outstanding personalities with long-standing events, such as honorary doctors. We are custodians of a rich heritage, with monuments such as the historic building, which is more than one hundred and fifty years old, the Güell pavilions and a unique bibliographic and archival collection.

We are a global university. We lead and collaborate with international networks and prestigious centers.

There are 130 countries represented at the UB. We have more than 3,500 agreements with institutions around the world, as well as 77 Erasmus+ projects. These alliances offer great opportunities for study and research mobility throughout our community. We are a European university, members of the European Association of Universities (EUA) and the only university in the State that belongs to the League of European Research Universities (LERU). In addition, we lead CHARM-EU, one of the first alliances of European universities to build a new European university.

We are a socially responsible institution. We take care of people and work to improve our social impact and reduce our environmental footprint.

We are committed to the Sustainable Development Goals and we want to incorporate them into all university activities to contribute to achieve the United Nations 2030 Agenda. Social commitment is one of the missions of our University and we have faced global challenges, such as poverty, inequality, climate, environmental degradation, prosperity, and peace and justice.

We are culture because, from our tradition and vocation for knowledge, we generate it and project it to the world.

We understand culture as a whole that includes the arts, sciences and heritage. ​​​​​​​It is also a basic instrument that extends the University to society and strengthens the feeling of belonging of its entire community. ​​​​​​​We open the doors of knowledge to everyone to become a meeting and participation points and to involve society.

We are a public university with an autonomous, collaborative and decentralized governance system.

The governing bodies of the University are the Senate, which represents the entire community and controls management, and the Governing Council, which defines the lines of action. The society also participates in university governance through the Social Council and the Grievance Union. We have two advisory bodies, the Advisory Board and the Conference of Deans, and the Student Council, made up of the students present in the Cloister.