The academic disciplines of Public Health and Economics at UPF have made a leap forward in the 2020 edition of the Global Ranking of Academic Subjects, one of the lists by the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), popularly known as the Shanghai Ranking, achieving 19^th and 44^th positions, respectively, worldwide.

The recently published Shanghai ranking by disciplines crosses data from more than 4,000 universities. It includes a total of 54 academic disciplines of which, depending on the discipline, it lists between the top 100 and 500 institutions around the world that teach them.

UPF appears in the ranking in a total of eighteen disciplines (with the novelty of Education), in which it has improved its results in eight, maintained them in seven, and fallen in one. These disciplines are divided into the areas of the social sciences (7 disciplines), medical sciences, (4) engineering (3), life sciences (2) and natural sciences (1).

Compared to the 2019 edition, in addition to the improvement by Public Health (up two places) and Economics (for which it was in the 51-75 bracket), Biological Sciences are noteworthy, this year coming among the top 75 (51-75 bracket), a position which is maintained by Biotechnology. Statistics and Political Sciences have climbed from the 101-150 bracket to the top 100 (76-100). In all these disciplines, UPF ranks first at national level.

For Public Health, Economics, Biological Sciences, Biotechnology, Statistics, Psychology, and Political Sciences, UPF is the leader in Spain

Other disciplines taught at UPF appearing in the classification are: in the 101-150 bracket we have Psychology (first in Spain, together with the UB) and  Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (both up compared to last year, when they were in the 151-200 bracket) and Medical Technology (stable); the 151-200 bracket features Human Biological Sciences (with improved results, rising from the 201-300 bracket), Environmental Engineering (stable), and Communication, which has slipped one bracket, since it was in the top 150 last year.

Finally, Computer Sciences and Engineering and Clinical Medicine (201-300 bracket) and Business Management and Administration,  Management and Ecology (all three in the 301-400 bracket) hold their positions. In this barcket is placed Education, whtich scores for the first time.

A classification by disciplines, led by the US, which assesses contributions to the world of science

Shanghai Jiao Tong University has drawn up the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) by academic disciplines (natural sciences, engineering, life sciences, medical sciences, and social sciences) since 2009, while it has published the overall ranking of universities since 2003. The list by disciplines gives more weight to the contribution made by institutions to the world of science, rather than to teaching and reputation.

The five indicators considered by the ranking, with respect to a particular academic discipline, are as follow: the number of papers published in journals in the First Quartile (Q1, highest impact factor); the InCites normalized citation impact, which measures the average impact of the scientific articles written by an institution; the percentage of papers with international co-authors written by an institution; the number of papers published in major journals and number of conferences and congresses, and finally, the total number of personnel of an institution that has won a significant award or recognition.

Globally, of the 56 academic disciplines included in the classification, 31 are led by universities of the United States. Harvard University (leader for 14 disciplines) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which leads six, stand out. They are followed by universities in China, which top the rankings in eleven disciplines, and in the United Kingdom and Singapore, which are the best in three disciplines, in each case.