Times Higher Education (THE), which produces one of the most prestigious and influential university rankings in the world, has published the 2019 edition of the ranking of young universities entitled “Young University Rankings“, which includes the top 351 institutions worldwide (101 more than in the previous edition) under 50 years old.

In what is now the eighth edition of the ranking, UPF maintains the position already achieved in 2018 and ranks 11^th best young university in the world. It is also notable for being the first university in Spain and the sixth in Europe.

The top three positions are held, in this order, and repeating the results of last year, by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland) and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

The Sorbonne University, which was officially established in 2018 following the merger of the University of Paris-Sorbonne and the Pierre and Marie Curie University is the only newcomer in the top 20, in ninth place.

At state level, apart from UPF, the top hundred positions include Rovira i Virgili University in 78^th place. Spain has the third most universities in the ranking with 22, along with Australia, while the UK and France are the most represented countries.

The results of the ranking were published within the framework of the summit of young universities that Times Higher Education held at the University of Surrey (United Kingdom) on 26 and 28 June 2019, under the title “Embracing risk, creating opportunities”.

UPF stands out for citations and international outlook

In the 2019 edition, Pompeu Fabra University has obtained an overall score of  63.6 points out of a hundred, rising year on year since the 2013 edition, when it scored 45.7. The figures speak for themselves.

The two indicators for which the University stands out are Citations (with a score of 95.7) and International outlook (scoring 64.3). In the other indicators, UPF achieves 47.0 for Teaching, 49.8 for research, and 42.4 for Industry income.

In drawing up the ranking of the best young universities, Times Higher Education uses the same indicators (a total of thirteen) as it uses in the global ranking, in the 2019 edition of which UPF came 135^th overall , the best ever obtained by the University.

However, the ranking of young universities gives less weight to indicators related to reputation, so as to reflect as faithfully as possible the characteristics of younger institutions.

The five major dimensions of indicators based on which the ranking is produced have a different weight: teaching (30%), with several variables related to the overall teaching process, such as the ratio of students per teacher or the institution’s academic reputation; research (30%), obtained from the volume of revenue through research, scientific output, and the reputation of the institution in this field.

The three remaining dimensions are citations received (30%), with the aim of measuring the influence of research results; international outlook (7.5%), with the ratios of local versus international students and lecturers, as well as international cooperation with other institutions; and industry income (2.5%), from the transfer of knowledge.