The 2015 edition of the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), better known as the 'Shanghai ranking', has positioned Pompeu Fabra University in the 201-300 segment, a result that improves on its performance in previous edition and consolidates its upwards movement in the ranking.

UPF, which in the last two editions was included in the 301-400 segment, particularly stands out in the subject fields of economics and business (where it falls within the 51-75 segment) and computer science (151-200 segment), as well as in the broad subject field of the social sciences (101-150 segment), positions that remain unchanged from the 2014 edition.

According to the ARWU, the University of Barcelona (UB) is one of the world's top 200 institutions, while the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) and Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) are in the same segment as UPF (201-300). The Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) falls in a lower segment (401-500).

The Centre for World-Class Universities and the Institute of Higher Education in Shanghai (China) have published this annual ranking since 2003. The ranking looks at the scientific and academic output of more than 1,000 universities. 

The ranking's website shows the results for the world's top 500 universities, according to bibliometric indicators of academic and research activity, breaking down the data into five 'broad subject fields' and five 'subject fields'.

Hegemony of US universities

As in previous years, US universities dominate the ranking, with the top slots going to Harvard, Stanford, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and University of California, Berkeley.

US universities have dominated the ranking since it was launched: of the top ten universities in the most recent edition, eight are from the US, including, in addition to the aforementioned, Princeton, the California Institute of Technology, Columbia University and the University of Chicago. The remaining two are British: Oxford and Cambridge. 

Six indicators to prepare the ranking

The indicators used (this ranking great importance on cumulative prizes and awards) and their relative weights are as follows:

- Alumni (10%): number of alumni who have won Nobel Prizes or Fields Medals;

- Awards (20%): active faculty who have won Nobel Prizes or Fields Medals;

-  HiCi (20%): highly cited researchers in the ISI, taking into consideration all 21 broad subject categories.

- N&S (20%): papers published in the journals Nature and  Science in the last five years;

- PUB (20%): papers indexed in the ISI's Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCIE) and Social Science Citation Index (SSCI); and, finally

- PCP (10%): corrects the other indicators based on the institution's size in terms of the number of full-time equivalent academic staff.