09/05/07

// The UPF joins the winners on the El Mundo podium

Pompeu Fabra University has won a place for the first time among the top three positions in the "50 degree courses" chart drawn up by the daily newspaper El Mundo: the UPF came third in the general ranking of Spanish public universities published today by that newspaper, just below two Madrid universities: the Politècnica and the Complutense. The UPF has climbed up two places from its previous overall ranking in fifth place.

That chart ranks the best Spanish university centres -71 public and private ones from all over Spain - offering the fifty first-cycle degree courses that proved most popular with the students last June, singling out the five best universities for each of those fifty courses. Seven degree courses at the UPF came top in the chart: Business Sciences, Political Sciences, Audiovisual Communication, Law, Economics, Humanities and Labour Relations. Business Management and Administration came second, and Translation and Interpretation came fifth.

Considering that the UPF offers only fourteen of the fifty courses included in the ranking, these results emerge as particularly significant, certifying the high standard of the degree courses offered by the university. El Mundo noted that the UPF is a "young, small and excellent university that breaks with public-university patterns in many ways". Among the plus points it singles out are the way the University has succeeded in attracting the best teaching staff and good students, and then getting the best from them. The positions won by the degree courses included in the 2007 charts as compared with 2006 were as follows:

• Business Management and Administration: still in second position
• Business Sciences: up from second place to the top
• Political and Administration Sciences: still topping the chart
• Audiovisual Communication: still at the top
• Law: moving up from second to top
• Economics: still top
• Humanities: still top
• Labour Relations: still top
• Translation and Interpretation: holding onto fifth place

Selection criteria for the chart

The report concerned, which El Mundo is publishing for the seventh time, gives data on 45 Spanish universities from the total of 71. 25 assessment criteria, broken down into three broad areas, are taken into account. Firstly, a questionnaire is sent out to 2,000 teachers from all over Spain (this criterion having a weighting of 40% in the assessment). Secondly, data provided by the universities themselves (demand for courses, human resources, material facilities, syllabuses, results, and contextual information), accounting for 50% of the final rating. Two extra criteria were also added this year, rating how well the universities fit in with the European Higher Education Area.

Lastly, account is also taken of various external indicators, which together have a weighting of 10% in the overall assessment: positions won in international charts, Aneca reports, self-assessment reports from the centres, and the results given in Spanish university reports, among others.

> The El Mundo chart showing the UPF courses (11 pages, in pdf format)
> The full chart published by El Mundo (23 pages, in pdf format)