The British company Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) has announced the results of the 2021 edition of the QS World University Rankings by Subject, which classifies the world’s top universities in 51 disciplines, three more than last year, and has analysed a total of 1,453 institutions.

UPF, which scores in sixteen disciplines (one more than in the 2020 edition), is among the top 100 in the world (51-100 bracket) for five disciplines, two more than last year. They are Economics and Econometrics (56^th), Linguistics, Political and International Studies (the same as 2020), which are joined by Development Studies and Social Policy and Administration, two disciplines for which UPF had not scored in previous years.

The University scores in a total of sixteen disciplines spread across four of the five general areas into which ranking is structured.

Among the top 150 in the world (101-150 bracket) are Modern Languages, Philosophy, Accounting and Finance, Law, Sociology and Communication, and Media Studies. The other disciplines for which UPF scores are Business and Management Studies (151-200), Biological Sciences (201-250), Medicine (251-300), and Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Mathematics (both within the 351-400 bracket).

In addition to the new disciplines of Development Studies and Social Policy and Administration, which have gone from not scoring to entering the 51-100 bracket, other changes compared to the 2020 edition are improvements in Philosophy and Law (both rising from the 151-200 bracket to the 101-150 bracket) and Biological Sciences (up from 251-300 to 201-250).

The other disciplines remain in the same positions, with the exception of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, which has fallen one bracket (from 301-350 to 351-400), and Art and Design, which last year stood in the 151-200 bracket and has not scored this year.

UPF improves in three of the four general areas of the ranking in which it scores

With regard to the general areas of the ranking, under the umbrella of which the different disciplines are grouped, UPF scores in four of the ranking’s five areas: Arts and Humanities, Engineering and Technology, Life Sciences and Medicine, and Social Sciences and Management (the only area in which UPF does not score is Natural Science).

UPF has climbed in Arts and Humanities (up from 208^th to 204^th), Engineering and Technology (from 386^th to 382^nd), and Life Sciences and Medicine (from 342^nd to 328^th). It has only fallen slightly in Social Sciences and Management (from 83^rd to 86^th) but they remain the area in which the University obtains its best results.

Results of the University at national level, with twelve disciplines in the top 10

If we focus on universities in Spain, UPF comes among the medals in seven disciplines: Politics and International Studies and Development Studies in first position; Economics and Econometrics, Sociology and Linguistics, in second; and Social Policy and Administration and Philosophy, in third. A further five disciplines are added to the top 10: Communication and Media Studies and Accounting and Finance (both in fourth place), Business and Management Studies and Biological Sciences (both in 5^th position), Law (6^th), Medicine (7^th), and Modern Languages (8^th).

Regarding UPF’s position, nationally, with regard to general areas, Social Sciences and Management are ranked second; Arts and Humanities, fifth; Life Sciences and Medicine, seventh, and Engineering and Technology, eleventh.

A ranking based on four indicators, led by Anglo-American centres

To provide information about the highest-scoring, most influential universities in each subject, the Ranking uses four indicators: an academic reputation survey, a survey of employer reputation, citations received by publications by each individual lecturer, and the h-index, which measures the productivity and impact of publications.

Of the four general areas in which UPD scores, Social Sciences and Management achieve the highest grade, scoring 85.8% for citations, 78.4% for academic reputation, 67.2% for employer reputation, and 69.2 in the h-index, with an aggregate score of 74.9. In the other three areas, UPF attains global scores of 67.7 (Arts and Humanities), 62.2 (Life Sciences and Medicine), and 62.1 (Engineering and Technology).

Regarding overall results in each of the five broad areas of knowledge, Oxford holds first position for Arts and Humanities, followed by Harvard and Cambridge; Engineering and Technology is led by MIT, followed by Stanford and Cambridge; Life Sciences and Medicine is led by Harvard, Oxford and Stanford; in Natural Sciences, the top three positions are held by MIT, Stanford and Harvard, respectively, and finally, for Social Sciences and Management, the podium is occupied by the universities of Harvard, London School of Economics and Political Sciences, and Stanford.