Pompeu Fabra University has seven disciplines among the best in their field in the 2013 QS world rankings by discipline which QS has produced annually since 2011, and which only includes the top 200 universities in each field.

As well as the fields of Linguistics, Sociology and Law, which appear for the first time this year, there are also four disciplines that were present in previous years: Economics and Econometrics, Politics and International Studies, Accounting and Finance, and Communications and Media Studies.

By discipline, in 34th position internationally, studies in Economics and Econometrics at UPF are still the best in Spain the state and remain in ninth place in Europe. The position of Politics and International Studies is also noteworthy because although this field has fallen to the 151-200 block of the ranking, UPF is the only institution in Spain listed in the top 200. The field of Communications and Media Studies has fallen into the 151-200 block, while the area of Accounting and Finance remains in the 101-150 block.

In the disciplines appearing for the first time this year, Linguistics is included in the 101-150 block while Law and Sociology are listed in the 150-200 block.

QS began producing the subject in 2011 and since then it has increased the number of subjects assessed to this year's thirty. Nearly 2,900 universities were evaluated for the 2013 lists, using data from various sources (primarily evaluations by other academics and the weight of citations of articles written by the institution's teaching staff). The position of each institution is only shown for the top 50 universities in each field, while the others, up to a total of 200, are listed in three blocks of 50.

The following table summarizes UPF's results since the beginning of the ranking.