UPF has positioned eight of its undergraduate courses among the best in Spain in the new edition of the “50 carreras” ranking, published by the newspaper El Mundo. This classification, which assesses all public and private universities, includes the 50 degrees most in demand by students last July and the five best universities at which to take them.

The ranking evaluates a total of eleven undergraduate degrees of the 27 taught at UPF, for which it scores in eight: three achieve first position (bachelor’s degrees in Political Science and Administration, in Economics and in Labour Relations, in the latter case, consecutively since 2009); two come in second place (bachelor’s degree in Finance and Accounting, which is the UPF equivalent of Business Sciences-Management, and the bachelor’s degree in Audiovisual Communication); two in fourth place (bachelor’s degrees in Law and Journalism), and finally, one in fifth (bachelor’s degree in Business Management and Administration).

The report highlights that UPF “is a highly competitive university in research and has a strong vocation for educational transformation as a means to respond to the challenges of the future”

Concerning UPF, the report highlights that UPF “is a highly competitive university in research and has a strong vocation for educational transformation as a means to respond to the challenges of the future. Its commitment is manifested in the transfer of new multidisciplinary knowledge that guides the implementation of inspiring leadership”. With these global results, very similar to those of recent editions, UPF remains among the most highly valued institutions.

Methodology and criteria taken into account by the ranking

The ranking of El Mundo presents data from 46 Spanish universities, which stand out in one or more of the degrees included, with the public institutions dominating the table. Twenty-five assessment criteria were considered, spread across three main sections.

The first section, a questionnaire administered to professors (some 3,000) from all over Spain, accounts for 40% of the final assessment; the second section collects data from the university itself (university demand, human resources, material resources, study plan), the results (dropout rate, graduation rate, average duration of studies, rate of participation by lecturers in research projects, and production of doctors) and context information (number of research projects in progress, number of languages offered, study programmes abroad, price per credit, and adaptation to the European Higher Education Area. All this information accounts for 50% of the final assessment.

Lastly, the third section, accounting for 10% of the assessment, takes into account external information from international rankings, reports by the ANECA and from several Spanish universities.