Two of the most widely read and respected world rankings for universities are QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) World University Rankings and Times Higher Education World University Rankings.
Results are published annually and Spanish universities rate consistently high in the world rankings.
Let’s take a look at the ranking of universities in Spain for 2023.
Factors which are taken into account when ranking universities include academic peer reviews, faculty-student ratio, citations per faculty, employer reputation, and diversity of the student community and academic staff.
In recent years Barcelona and Madrid have topped the ranking of universities in Spain, but all Spanish universities offer high standards of education and it is important to bear in mind that the larger cities also tend to be the most expensive.
Ranking of universities in Spain 2023
Here are the top 15 ranked Spanish universities from QS and Times Higher Education.
There are 76 universities in Spain in total.
If you would like to see the full listings of Ranking of Universities in Spain 2023 you can follow these links: QS rankings / Times rankings.
QS rankings for top 15 Spanish universities
- Universitat de Barcelona
- Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
- Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
- Complutense Universidad de Madrid
- Universidad de Navarra
- Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona)
- Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M)
- Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
- Universidad IE (Madrid)
- Universitat Politècnica de València
- Universidad de Zaragoza
- Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
- Universidad de Alcalá (Madrid)
- Universidad de Granada
- Universitat de Valencia
Times Higher Education rankings for top 15 Universities in Spain
- Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona)
- Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
- Universitat de Barcelona
- Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
- Universidad de Navarra
- Universidad de Valencia
- Complutense Universidad de Madrid
- Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Barcelona)
- Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Tarragona)
- Universidad de Alcalá (Madrid)
- Universitat de les Illes Balears (Palma de Mallorca)
- Universidad del País Vasco
- Universitat de Girona
- Universidad de Granada
- Jaume I University (Castellón de la Plana)
Universities in Spain : Barcelona comes out on top
As you can see, QS Rankings and Times Higher Education Rankings differ in their rankings.
QS ranks Universitat de Barcelona in the top spot and Times Higher Education gives top spot to Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
QS and Times Higher Education use slightly different criteria to assess the universities and their data will come from different sources.
But what is clear for 2023 at least is that Barcelona comes out as the top city in the Ranking of Universities in Spain as both lists place universities from Barcelona in first and second spots.
Universities in Spain : Madrid, Navarra, Granada, Zaragoza
Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and Universitat de Barcelona are clearly very respected Spanish universities and all three rank high in the university world rankings.
The Madrid universities: Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and Complutense Universidad de Madrid also rank consistently high.
And if you are looking to study somewhere outside of Spain’s two major cities you could look to Navarra’s Universidad de Navarra, Granada’s Universidad de Granada, and Zaragoza’s Universidad de Zaragoza which also all rank high.
