Last September, QS announced the results of the 2012 World University Rankings, one of the most internationally prestigious classifications, which it uses to produce its other publications and events related to higher education, and which includes the best universities in a country and those that are leaders in a particular field of knowledge or area of activity.

QS produces its general rankings based on six differently weighted indicators: academic reputation (40%), recruiter review (10%), citations per faculty member (20%), faculty/student ratio (20%), percentage of international students (5%) and percentage of international faculty (5%). QS subsequently announces this information during the academic year to determine which universities excel in each field.

In specific terms, in the two indicators that evaluate the international dimension, UPF is the leading Spanish university in both cases: the percentage of international students and the percentage of international faculty. And although the University has led the latter indicator in the last three rankings, this is the first time its percentage of foreign students has also been outstanding.

New activities in the reception day for international students

On this subject, in the first fortnight of January, at the start of the second term, UPF welcomed 180 new international exchange students who were beginning their academic stage. These students have come to the University through the Erasmus programme, the bilateral agreements that the University has with the rest of the world, and as visitors, and represent many nationalities in the classrooms.

To these must be added the 448 students who have also arrived as part of the Study Abroad Program, who are mostly from North American universities, and for the first time, we welcome students from the University of California and Arcadia University, who are new partners of UPF this academic year.

In order to facilitate their stage, the International Relations Service has organized orientation sessions involving the participation of various services at the University, so that new students take advantage of the activities and resources made available to them by the Language Voluntariate, the Library, the Computing Service, the University Community Assistance Service and the Language Training Programme at UPF.

Local students have also become involved to help with their integration, as has the ESN (Erasmus Students Network) association, which accompanied the newcomers on a tour of the campus. All the international mobility students at UPF this term have also received academic information about their studies from their mobility coordinators and the managers of Hispanic and European Studies Programme, to make their time at UPF as beneficial as possible.