University of Barcelona, within the most influent State universities on Research, according to U-Multirank

The University of Barcelona is one of the most influent State universities on research regarding high quoted publications, a position which shares with Pompeu Fabra and Mondragon universities. This is one of U-Multirank ’s conclusions, an annual list launched by the European Commission aiming to evaluate universities from a not only research perspective –like other International rankings such as ARWU do- but also evaluating aspects such as teaching, knowledge transfer, regional engagement and the university’s international orientation.

The ranking sets 4 kinds of qualifications within the 30 that rank from ‘A’ to ‘E’: ‘A’ meaning ‘very good’ and ‘E’ meaning ‘weak’ performances. University of Barcelona has a very good result (A) on a number of normalized publications, collaborations with international group publications, collaborations with regional group publications and regional source income. In the knowledge area, the University of Barcelona is the first in ratio among students and the Mathematics, Chemistry and Biology teaching personnel.

This ranking has more than 1.300 universities from 90 countries, 67 in Spain. The University of Barcelona, within the European Research Universities League framework, LERU, has always held a restrained position in this ranking. Therefore, University of Barcelona’s participation to the creation of this list is partial.

The institution had warned that this project could become an important cost to the universities: its development implies spending 4 million euros from the Erasmus Program.

U-Ranking results

The University of Barcelona has improved and has moved from fourth to third position in the last edition of the 2016 U-Ranking (Synthetic Indicators of the Spanish University System), where it shares position with Madrid’s Universidad Autónoma, Carlos III and the University of Navarra. This is one of the ranking’s conclusions made by the BBVA Foundation and the Valencian Institute of Economic Research (Ivie).

The University of Barcelona is also ranked in third position for its research efficiency, fourth position for its teaching and learning efficiency and fifth position for its technology development and innovation. In the U-Ranking Volum, which ranks the universities according to their size, the University of Barcelona maintains the second place, after Complutense University of Madrid. In the teaching area, it holds the second position, and the sixth regarding Technology development and innovation.

U-Ranking analyzes 61 universities within Spain that represent more than the university system’s 95% regarding bachelor students. The ranking takes into account the three aims of the university: teaching, research and technology development and innovation.

Within the analyzed indicators, the number of teachers every hundred students -in the teaching field- are valued, also, the success and quitting rate from students, and the cut-off marks or the number of international students. In research, state and international means gained by the teaching personnel are evaluated, also, the published articles with ISI references, the number of sexennis (six-year Presidential term of office) and published thesis, among others.

In technology development and innovation, some of the indicators are the income gained with international contracts or licenses, as well as the number of patents. According to the ranking drivers, “the ranking is leaded by the technical colleges, which are more oriented to their nature towards knowledge transfer”.

Link to University of Barcelona’s results [Catalan]