“Having moved up another rung in such a demanding ranking is great news for Basque society and for the University of the Basque Country, especially. Moving up rungs in this ranking is one of the best ways of making our work known. Nevertheless, I believe that this should not result in making us complacent but in maintaining the same level of attainment that has led us to this position. The UPV/EHU is positioned among the best 400 universities in the world where there are more than 20,000 higher education institutions. I would also like to congratulate all the members of our university community, because a university is a collective project and so are its achievements,” explained the Vice-Chancellor of the UPV/EHU Nekane Balluerka.

This ranking basically measures the impact of the research of the universities as well as their international prestige. Among the top 500 there are a total of ten Spanish universities (one less than last year). The University of the Basque Country made its first appearance in this prestigious ranking in 2012.

The first three positions in the ranking are held by the universities of Harvard, Stanford and Cambridge, in that order. With respect to the first ten positions, eight are held by American universities and two by British universities (Oxford, in addition to Cambridge).

The UPV/EHU is located ex aequo between positions 301 and 400. The explanation for this lies in the system for presenting the results that has been established within the index. So there is a strict precedence from greater to less in terms of scores between positions 1 and 100. That is followed by a block of 50 universities; then another block with another 50; and after that, up to 500 divided into three blocks of 100 universities each. The universities appear in alphabetical order within each of these blocks. To properly assess the importance of this position, one should remember that there are over 20,000 higher education institutions across the world.

When drawing up this list, which provides an international reference for measuring university excellence, all the universities that have personnel or former students who are Nobel prize winners or Fields Medal winners in Mathematics, and which have frequently quoted researchers or papers published in Nature or Science, are taken into consideration. A total of more than 1,300 universities are assessed and the top 500 published.

Ranking by specialisation

In terms of specialisations, the UPV/EHU stands out in various disciplines in the July edition of the Shanghai ranking (devoted to specialisations). Specifically, it is positioned in the 51-75 section devoted to world universities in Chemical Engineering, and is also the number one in Spain in this field. It is also prominent in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, and in Chemistry, and figures in both disciplines in the 101-150 section of world universities. Finally, the UPV/EHU is in the 151-200 section of world universities in terms of Energy Science and Engineering, and Materials Science and Engineering.