UPF, among the best universities in the world for nine disciplines
Contra el genocidi i contra la violació dels drets humans, a Gaza i arreu del món
Peace comes when you talk to the person you most hate. And that’s where the courage of a leader comes.
Desmond Tutu (1931-2021), first recipient of an honorary doctorate from UPF
These words, spoken by Desmond Tutu, the first person ever to be awarded an honorary doctorate by UPF, are more applicable today than ever. The UPF condemns, and will always condemn, the use of violence to settle disputes. At UPF, we advocate approaching political or territorial conflicts based on dialogue and respect for all peoples and minorities.
As a university, we also want to show our support to the academic community in countries at war. Universities and scientific institutions are more necessary than ever in these regions. Access to education and the promotion of critical thinking, in the context of strong independent institutions, are the way to ensure the informed debate and reflection that can open the door to new avenues for finding solutions.
At UPF, we are aware of the university community’s concern for the human rights violations we are seeing in the conflicts around us. That is why on this website you will find information about campaigns and actions related to current conflicts, as well as opinion pieces and institutional statements. We also offer a dedicated e-mail address – [email protected] – to contact the university and let us know about your interests and concerns.
UPF, among the best universities in the world for nine disciplines
Pompeu Fabra University has managed to position nine of the 22 disciplines evaluated among the best in the world in the fifth edition of the rankings by subject published by QS annually since 2011. 
Thus, studies in Accounting and Finance, Communication and Media Studies, Law, Economics and Econometrics, Linguistics, Politics and International Studies are joined in this edition by studies in Modern Languages, Biology and Medicine (the last two in the 301-350 bracket). In fact, traditionally, the QS ranking by subjects only incorporated the top 200 universities in the world for each field, but in 2015, those responsible for the ranking have extended the universities present in some disciplines up to 400, arguing that they are areas with a "greater volume".
By disciplines, it is worth highlighting the results of the studies in Economics and Econometrics at UPF, which rise to 23 rd in the world, sixth in Europe (second if only the universities of continental Europe are considered) and first in Spain.
Table 1 shows the evolution of the different disciplines at UPF in the ranking in the last three years .
| Table 1. Evolution of studies at UPF in in the QS ranking by discipline | |||
| Disciplines (*) | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 |
| Biology | 301-350 | -- | -- |
| Accounting and Finance | 151-200 | 101-150 | 101-150 |
| Communication and Media Studies | 151-200 | 151-200 | 151-200 |
| Law | 151-200 | 101-150 | 151-200 |
| Economics and Econometrics | 23 | 40 | 34 |
| Linguistics | 101-150 | 101-150 | 101-150 |
| Modern Languages | 201-250 | -- | -- |
| Medicine | 301-350 | -- | -- |
| Politics and International Studies | 151-200 | 101-150 | 151-200 |
| Sociology | -- | 101-150 | 151-200 |
QS began to compile rankings by subject in 2011 and since then, has increased the number of disciplines evaluated to the thirty six of today. In the 2015 edition, more than 3,500 universities have been evaluated of which only about 900 appear in the ranking. To perform out this ranking, QS basically uses three types of data: the evaluations of academics and employers (collected from reputation surveys), and data from Scopus to calculate the number of citations of each researcher, where an index is applied to allow quantifying the scientific output and impact of the articles of a researcher.
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