UPF presentation

1. Mission and goals

UPF is a young, public and modern university founded in 1990 and called to become one of the leading European universities.

Awarded with a CEI label (International Excellence Campus) by the Spanish Ministry of Education, UPF's indicators have made it a benchmark for the Spanish and European university systems. In recent years, the University has begun to figure prominently in some prestigious international rankings.

Global indicators:

International Excellence Campus (Spanish Ministry of Education, 2010)
First Spanish university (Times Higher Education ranking, 2011)
One of the twenty European universities with more projects funded by the European Research Council (ERC, 2011)
First Spanish university in teaching quality (CYD report, 2010)
High satisfaction rate (93%) and job placements (87%) among graduates (AQU Catalunya, 2011)

2. A specialized university

UPF structures its studies on three main fields of knowledge, closely interconnected and structured under three campuses:

Social sciences and humanities, Ciutadella campus
Health and life sciences, Mar campus
Communication and information technologies, Communication-Poblenou campus

Moreover, in order to promote research and transfer activities undertaken by university researchers and provide them with greater international visibility, the University is developing the UPF Research Park in the fields of social sciences, humanities, communication and information technologies. The UPF Research Park, which develops its activity at Ciutadella and Poblenou campuses, coordinates its activities in the fields of health and life sciences with the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park, located at Mar campus.

Facts & Figures (2010-2011 academic year):

Undergraduate students: 9.115 (UPF Group: 11.209)
Official Master's students: 993 (UPF Group: 1.468)
Doctoral students: 1.127
UPF Master's student: 1.934
Number of academic staff: 556 FTE
Number of permanent professors: 324
Number of administrative and service staff: 670
2012 Budget: 121 M€

3. The UPF model

UPF is committed to offering a high-quality teaching model and an outstanding research with international projection, the three axis of the UPF model.

A high-quality teaching model close to the students

UPF's teaching model is based on a comprehensive education and a student-centred learning. Nowadays, the success of this model is proved by different indicators as, for example, the high demand of UPF studies, the rates of achievement among its students or the excellent rates of graduates employment and satisfaction.

Main indicators:

More than two students apply for every UPF place available (2011-2012 academic year)
Highest rate of performance in the Spanish system: 86% (2010-2011 academic year)
Graduate employment: 87% (AQU Catalunya, 2011)
Satisfaction rate: 93% of UPF graduates would choose the same university again (AQU Catalunya, 2011)

An outstanding research

These results are possible due to the high competitiveness of UPF lecturers and researchers. In that sense, the University model is primarily based on a policy of being an institution that is open to the world, incorporating prominent national and international researchers.

This commitment is reflected in excellent indicators in research, such as the volume of funds coming from the EU - 7th Framework Programme (FP7) or indicators of scientific production. Additionally, the strategy begins to result in the form of patents and spin-offs of international impact.

Main indicators:

First Spanish university and among the top twenty universities in Europe in grants funded by the European Research Council (January 2012):
- 11 UPF Grants (the 8% of the grants given to Spain, the 16% in Catalonia)
- 26 Grants for the UPF Group (the 18% in Spain, the 37% in Catalonia)
Second Spanish university and fifth Spanish institution in terms of EC contribution granted to the FP7 research projects (European Commission, 2011)
Recruitment and retention of talent: 28 Ramón y Cajal, 22 Juan de la Cierva, 36 ICREA and 18 ICREA Academia (2011)
The 78% of doctoral dissertations written and defended in English (2010-2011 academic year)
First Spanish university for international collaboration and field normalized citation score (Scimago Institutions Rankings, 2011)

International vocation

UPF international profile is the result of a strategy focused on establishing a policy of alliances with a network of preferred partners and the recruitment of lecturers with an international background. Besides, it also promotes international mobility (incoming and outgoing), includes the use of English in several courses and it is committed to consolidate a multilingual campus with three languages -Catalan, Spanish and English- used in all spheres of university life.

Main indicators:

Strategic alliances: A4U, Maastricht Group and CASB (Ivy League)
First Spanish university in the "International faculty" indicator (Times Higher Education ranking, 2011)
Agreements with 27 of the Top 50 universities in the world (Times Higher Education ranking, 2011)
30% of official master's students and 49% of doctoral are international (2010-2011)
12% of our lecturers and researchers are international (2011)
29% of graduates have spent stages abroad (2009-2010 academic year)

4. International and national rankings

Main rankings:

First Spanish university (Times Higher Education ranking, 2011)
Included in the top 400 universities in the world (Shanghai University ranking, 2011)
First Spanish university in teaching quality and ability to attract students and included in the Top 5 in quality research (CYD Report, 2010)
10 of the 15 undergraduate courses evaluated included in the Top 5 (El Mundo ranking, 2011)
First Spanish university for international collaboration and field normalised citation score, second in the excellence rate and third in high quality publications (Scimago Institutions Rankings, 2011)
First Spanish university in research productivity: journals articles indexed in the JCR, research and development projects in 2010 and doctoral dissertations between 2004 and 2009 (Ranking 2010 in research production and productivity in the Spanish university public system)
First university in Spain and Latin America for international collaboration and average in scientific quality; and for social sciences, health sciences and life sciences in terms of the percentage of publications in journals listed in the first quartile of the most influential journals in the world (Scimago Institutions Ranking Latin America, 2010)
First Spanish university, 7th in Europe and 35th worldwide for research in economics (Research ranking by the University of Tilburg, 2009)
Part of the Excellence Group in Economics and Business and in Political and Social Sciences, according to the CHE - Excellence Ranking (CHE, 2010)