On 10 April, the British company Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) announced the results of the 2024 edition of the QS World University Rankings by Subject, which classifies the world’s top universities in 55 academic disciplines. This year the ranking includes a total of more than 1,559 institutions from 96 countries, with an independent comparative analysis of the performance of more than 16,400 university programmes.

UPF appears in a total of eighteen disciplines (three more than last year), the highest number obtained to date, with four appearing for the first time: Archaeology, Art and Design, History, and Computer Science and Information Systems, while Development Studies does not score this year. Thus, the University obtains results in line with recent editions, keeping it among the institutions positioned at the top of the table.

UPF ranks among the top 100 in the world for five disciplines (one more than last year): Economics and Econometrics, in 28th place in the world; Accounting and Finance, in 100th place, and in the 51-100 bracket, Politics and International Studies, Public Management and Administration, and Communication and Media Studies (which has risen a notch, since in the previous edition it was in the 101-150 bracket).

Economics and Econometrics ranks 28th in the world, Accounting and Finance 100th, and Politics and International Studies and Political Management and Administration are positioned in the 51-100 bracket

This year four disciplines stand out that appear in the classification for the first time: Archaeology, in the 151-200 bracket; Art and Design (201-240); History (201-230), and Computer Science and Information Systems (251-300).

Other disciplines in which UPF appears, and which already scored last year, are: among the top 150 in the world (101-150 bracket) Linguistics, Law and Legal Studies, and Sociology; and among the top 200, Modern Languages and Philosophy (both in the 151-200 bracket). These are followed by Biological Sciences and Business and Management Studies (201-250 bracket); and Medicine (251-300), and Mathematics (301-350).

With regard to the general areas of the ranking, grouped under the umbrella of the different disciplines, UPF scores in four of the ranking’s five areas: Social Sciences and Management (108th position), Arts and Humanities (197th), Life Sciences and Medicine (369th), and Engineering and Technology (501-550 bracket). The only area in which UPF does not score is Natural Sciences.

Three first positions within Spain

If we focus on the universities of Spain, UPF tops the ranking for Economics and Econometrics, Politics and International Studies, and Political Management and Administration. It also rises to the podium for Communication and Media Studies (2nd position).

The University places a further seven disciplines among the top five: Accounting and Finance, Law and Legal Studies, Linguistics, Sociology, Philosophy, Art and Design, and Biological Sciences.

Within the state-wide top 10, we find in Business and Management Studies, Archaeology, Modern Languages, History, Computer Science and Information Systems, and Medicine. Finally, Mathematics comes in eleventh position.

In terms of general areas, the University ranks sixth for Social Sciences and Management; eighth for Arts and Humanities; ninth for Medicine and Life Sciences, and fourteenth for Engineering and Technology.

UPF notable for citations

The ranking uses five indicators: an academic reputation survey, a survey of employer reputation, citations received by publications by each individual lecturer, the h-index, which measures the output and the impact of publications, and the International Research Network (IRN), which measures stable research partnerships in the five major thematic areas of the ranking.

Of the four general areas in which UPF scores, Social Sciences and Management achieves the highest score, at 72.2: it scores 86.9 for citations, 79 for academic reputation, 60.1 for employer reputation, 74.2 for the h-index, and 52.6 for IRN. In the other three areas, UPF attains global scores of 69.8 (Arts and Humanities), 62.8 (Engineering and Technology), and 60.4 (Life Sciences and Medicine), again with citations being the indicator for which it achieves the best results.

On a global scale, Anglo-Saxon universities lead the five general areas of the ranking. Harvard University (USA) is most noteworthy, coming first for Arts and Humanities, Life Sciences and Medicine, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and Management, while Engineering and Technology is led by MIT.