UPF is considered the most efficient university in Spain, according to the third edition of the State university ranking, conducted by the Knowledge and Development Foundation (CyD), which analysed 66 universities, 44 public and 22 private, and 948 degrees from a total of 14 knowledge areas, ranging from Mathematics to Biology through Chemistry, Medicine and History. 

The ranking is based on a total of 32 institutional indicators, distributed among the categories of Teaching and learning, Research, Knowledge transfer, International outlook and Contribution to regional development.

For Pompeu Fabra University 22 out of the 32 indicators are in the high efficiency category (four more than in the previous edition), ranking first university of the State with better overall results. Second and third place are held by the UAB and the UB, respectively, with 21 well-positioned indicators.

The efficiency results are not absolute but are established in comparison with the data for all participating universities and are weighted according to the size of the institutions.

Twenty-two high efficiency indicators, with greatest weight in research, knowledge transfer and international outlook

Of the 32 indicators studied, UPF is highly efficient in twenty-two. It particularly stands out in the area of Research, where it achieves high efficiency (in seven of the ten relevant indicators) in external research funding; publications by teaching and research staff; normalized impact of publications; highly cited publications; post-doctoral students; current research periods and civil service teaching and research staff without research periods.

In the international outlook section, UPF stands out in five of the six indicators analysed: master’s degree courses taught in a foreign language; student mobility; foreign teaching staff; international doctoral theses, and international publications.

Finally, for knowledge transfer it achieves a good score for publications with companies; patents granted; patent applications with private companies, and publications cited in patents (four of the eight categories analysed).

A practical, customizable tool

The ranking by the Knowledge and Development Foundation, which uses the philosophy of the EC’s U-Multirank, made on the basis of relative indicators, aims to be an interactive tool where it is the users who seek and select the universities based on categories they deem important.

It is designed to provide information and decision criteria both for future students, university administrators, researchers, companies and other social stakeholders wishing to establish links with a university.