The University keeps the ninth spot in the El Mundo rankings which it achieved last year, but has an additional course in the list - Labour Relations - joining Business Sciences, Political and Administration Sciences, and Audiovisual Communication.

The UPF holds onto ninth place overall and the eighth spot among state-run universities , the same positions it occupied last year in the new "50 carreras" (50 courses) league table compiled by El Mundo newspaper. This classification, based on an assessment of all the state-run and private universities in Spain, covers the 50 courses most in demand by students last June and the five best universities to do them at.

The study looked at 15 of the courses taught at the UPF (some leading to bachelor's degrees, others to diplomas, long degrees or engineering degrees), six of which were classified among the top three, while two others occupied a fourth and fifth place. The University has thus consolidated its good performance in the ranking which began some years ago and remains stable in the leading positions.

However, although it is still in the same overall position as last year, its performance is actually better than the year before. Whereas in 2008 it had three courses were in first place, this year it has four: Business Sciences, Political and Administration Sciences, Audiovisual Communication - which stay in first place - and Labour Relations, which regains the top spot it had held in previous years. Business Management and Administration and Economics stay in second place, Translation and Interpretation repeats its fifth place, while Law moves up from fifth to fourth.

These results are especially important bearing in mind that of the 50 courses analysed in compiling the ranking, the UPF teaches only 15, which confirms the overall high standard of the courses run by the University. Moreover, it should also be taken into account that Humanities, a course on which the UPF normally holds one of the top positions in the table, was not included in this year's assessment.

The ranking's selection criteria in an academic year in transition towards the EHES

The ninth report, published by El Mundo, presents data on the 45 best Spanish universities, with state-run institutions dominating the table. 25 assessment criteria divided into three major sections were taken into consideration. The first section (with a 40% weighting) is a questionnaire to teaching staff all over Spain. The second (accounting for 50% of the final score) includes data from the universities themselves - demand, human resources, physical resources, syllabuses, results and contextual information. The third (with a maximum overall score of 10%) takes account of various external indicators such as the results of international rankings, reports by the Spanish National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation (ANECA), university self-assessment reports and the results of reports by Spanish universities, among others.

This year's ranking exercise can be regarded as one of transition, since Spanish universities are going through a time of change as they pursue the goal of adapting to the new European Higher Education Space. Hence this year's classification looked at courses which have been adapted and others which have not, some still to be ratified by the ANECA. Next year will be the last one in which both sets of syllabuses will co-exist, after which the El Mundo ranking will stop comparing and judging both models together like this.

> Rankings including UPF courses ( pdf, 7 pages)
> Full rankings ( pdf, 17 pages).