The eighth edition of U-Multirank, the ranking promoted by the European Union, places UPF as the fourth university in Europe, three places higher than last year, remaining first in Spain. On a European scale, Pompeu Fabra comes behind College Cork (Ireland), Aalto (Finland) and École Centrale de Nantes (France).

UPF obtains the highest rating (A) for 16 indicators: 6 for research, 3 for international orientation, 3 for regional engagement, 3 for knowledge transfer, and 1 for teaching and learning

This is a proposed classification within U-Multirank with predetermined criteria, although this is not the main purpose of the ranking, which is presented as an open list to evaluate universities’ activity based on user criteria. This year, the list compares 1,945 universities (a thousand in Europe and 79 in Spain), belonging to 96 countries around the world, with nearly 5,000 faculties and more than 12,000 study programmes in 30 thematic areas.

UPF obtains the highest rating (A) for 16 indicators:

U-Multirank uses a multidimensional approach to show the strengths and weaknesses of institutions and to compare the performance of universities in 42 different indicators, distributed across five dimensions: research, international orientation, regional engagement, knowledge transfer, and teaching and learning. It assess the different indicators with a rating ranging from “A” (very good) to “E” (weak).

In the table of ratings, UPF achieves 16 “As”, one more than in the previous edition, specifically, 6 for research, 3 for international orientation, 3 for regional engagement, 3 for knowledge transfer, and 1 for teaching and learning. The other ratings for the University are 9 “Bs”, 4 “Cs”, 2 “Ds”, 1 “E” and for 10 indicators it is listed as not assessable or not applicable. Behind UPF, on a national scale, are Carlos III University of Madrid and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, with 13 “As” each.

The data included in the ranking come from various sources offering users a complete set of information: data supplied by institutions; taken from bibliometric databases and international patents; from national databases; and from surveys on more than 100,000 students from the participating universities.

Importance of cooperation between universities

In this edition, U-Multirank, which is funded by the European Commission’s Erasmus + programme, the Bertelsmann Foundation and the Santander Group, emphasizes the positive effects of cooperation on a local and on an international scale, an area in which European universities are well placed. To this end, it has created a cooperation index, which takes into account various aspects such as strategic alliances, joint international degrees, joint international publications, or joint regional publications and publications with industry.