UPF was founded in 1990 by the Catalan government with the aim of creating a public university focused on academic excellence and contributing to the country’s development. To achieve this goal, over the years, UPF has carried out all of its activities in accordance with strict quality criteria and has created a model of an urban university that is intimately linked to the city of Barcelona. As a university, we have been selective in the areas of knowledge that we have focused on in order to specialize primarily in research and training related to the various dimensions of the human being, including biology, communication and social phenomena. Our relatively small size, which we have maintained despite some growth, has emerged as one of our defining traits, and an eminently positive one at that, as it has allowed us to preserve the ideal size for the formation of a cohesive academic community, in which academic and administrative units have a sense of belonging to the same institution and of sharing the same values.

Mission

To train, by means of a rigorous, innovative and personalized educational model, people with a solid scientific and cultural background, general skills that can be adapted to the changes and challenges of society, and the specific skills they need to successfully carry out their life projects.

To become a prominent research university.
We must be leaders in scientific discovery and innovation and achieve international leadership in our areas of expertise.

To promote innovation and social transformation.
We must transcend the institution’s walls to generate synergies with society in order to contribute to social welfare and create value.

To promote the commitment to culture.
We must become a ‘think tank’ – that is, a forum for debate, discussion and reflection at the service of culture – which offers tools for deciphering the contemporary world while actively engaging with it.

Values

Beyond the production and transmission of knowledge, we wish to associate our identity with a set of essential values that allow us to improve as people and to establish ourselves as a distinct, ethics-driven community in the increasingly global context of higher education institutions.

Pluralism
To integrate the diversity of viewpoints and ideologies and to respect collegiality, promoting respect and collaboration among all groups and seeking common grounds to promote participatory decision-making.

Autonomy
So that, based on the recognition of our own identity as a university, we can have the organizational, financial and regulatory capacity we need to achieve our goals in the best possible way.

Dynamism
To be alert to the world around us, play an active role in it and at the same time know how to swiftly adapt and respond to both the changes that occur and the new needs arising from them.

Commitment
To become active agents and drivers of change and innovation in society and to thereby contribute, with creativity, critical thinking, honesty, proactiveness and academic freedom, to finding solutions for the problems and potential conflicts affecting our community and society as a whole.

Fairness
To ensure equal opportunity and conditions, to combat inequalities and discrimination on grounds of gender, social class, ethnic or racial origin, sexual orientation or disabilities, as well as to train professionals and citizens who go on to transfer these values to the members of their personal and professional circles.

Rigour
From both an academic and human point of view, to strive, with the necessary self-discipline and leveraging our full potential, to be a leader in both education and research.

Accountability
To establish a direct relationship with the institutions and groups to which we are accountable and offer them transparent explanations of the goals we pursue and the results we achieve, with the necessary openness to take in their assessments.