Pompeu Fabra hosts a Times Higher Education masterclass on university rankings
The meeting of 19 July was organized by UPF, together with THE and the SEPIE-Ministry of Universities, and particularly targeted professionals responsible for internationalization at higher education centres in Spain. Chaired by the rector, Laia de Nadal, it was attended by Phil Baty, THE director of Global Affairs, and served for the British journal to share the new methodology that will be used in its rankings as of the autumn.
Times Higher Education (THE), together with UPF and the Spanish Service for the Internationalization of Education (SEPIE) of the Ministry of Universities, organized the Times Higher Education Ranking Masterclass, with two goals: on the one hand, for THE to share the new methodology that will be used in its rankings from autumn of this year, and on the other, for the SEPIE to explain the positioning of Spanish universities in the different university classifications.
Helena Ramalhinho: “International rankings take into account different variables that are updated over time. UPF needs to be up to date with all these changes to continue to be well positioned in the different classifications”
The meeting, particularly targeting the vice-rectors responsible for internationalization of all of the universities in Spain, both public and private, and those responsible for international rankings, took place in the morning of 19 July in the multipurpose room of the Mercè Rodoreda building on the Ciutadella campus, and involved about forty people, linked to seventeen university centres throughout the Spanish state, seven of them from Catalonia.
Laia de Nadal, UPF rector, welcomed those in attendance (10.30 am). Next, Alfonso Gentil and Fátima Terol, director and deputy director of the SEPIE, respectively, spoke about Spain’s results in the latest international university rankings.
The main part of the masterclass (11.10 am - 1.00 pm) was given by Times Higher Education, with the participation of Phil Baty, director of Global Affairs, and Lachyn Italmazova, commercial director for the United Kingdom and Europe. The topics covered in this section were as follows: 1WUR 3.0: upcoming changes in the methodology of THE World University Rankings and what these changes could mean for Spanish universities; Spain’s results in the ranking based on the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); brand management and reputation, and solutions when helping Spain’s university leaders in the building of strategies and the management of results.
The conclusions (1.30 pm - 2.00 pm) were given by Phil Baty, Helena Ramalhinho, UPF vice-rector for Internationalization, and Alfonso Gentil.
UPF, well positioned in THE rankings
According to Helena Ramalhinho, “International rankings take into account different variables that are updated over time. UPF needs to be up to date with all these changes to continue to be well positioned in the different classifications, as is the case of THE rankings, in which Pompeu Fabra has always performed well”.
In two THE rankings, the World University Rankings and the Young University Rankings, UPF stands out especially for citation indicators, related to the number of citations received by scientific articles with respect to the number of staff (academic and research), and internationalization, related to the percentage of teaching staff and students of a nationality other than Spanish.
In the 2023 edition of the World University Rankings, UPF ranked 186th, while in the Young University Rankings, it ranked eighteenth. However, in the latter classification, if European universities resulting from recent mergers between centres were not taken into account, UPF would occupy second place in Europe and tenth worldwide.