The rise of Chinese institutions in the Shanghai ranking, the most influential international ranking of universities in the world, has become more apparent in the 2023 edition than in others, and has forced European and Spanish universities down at lower ranges. Despite the global figures, the Spanish university system shows strength, not only because of the number of universities among the first thousand (39), but because it stands out in disciplines (the ranking also analyzes areas of knowledge) such as veterinary medicine, medicine, public health , economics, tourism and some engineering.
The University of Barcelona (UB), which was in the range of 151 to 200 best institutions in the world, among the 2,500 presented this year, has dropped to the 201-300 range, where the University de Granada (UGR), which has improved its classification (the only Spanish one to have risen, with that of Oviedo).
The rest have either stayed the same or gone down the steps, such as Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Complutense de Madrid (UCM), Valencia (UV), Basque Country (UPV), Sevilla ( US ), Zaragoza (UZ) or Santiago de Compostela (USC), among others.
In this edition, there are nine universities among the five hundred best in the world (last year, eleven), of which five have dropped and one has moved up (Granada).
Among the first hundred are sixteen universities from the European Union (in 2022 there were 19).
Since 2003, the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), the Shanghai ranking, has been producing a ranking of leading universities for their research. The classification is discussed in the academic world because of how it evaluates aspects that do not always reflect the quality of a university. For example, 20% of the grade corresponds to the number of Nobel Prizes or Fields Medals (mathematics) the campus has.
But as of now, and while Europe does not have its own ranking (it is already being promoted), it is one of the most reliable instruments for international evaluation. The quality and quantity of articles published in high-impact journals such as Science and Nature or citations by researchers, as well as award-winning professors and former students, are measured.
In 2010, there was no Chinese university in this ranking, which has always been headed by American universities (Harvard, Stanford or Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT) and which also includes the British universities Cambridge and Oxford. But for some years now, Chinese universities have been entering it, benefiting from the heavy investments of the government that has set higher education as a national goal.
In this edition, universities such as Zhengzhou, Shenzhen, Nankai, Hunan, Beijing Normal or Beihang have entered by occupying high positions.
"The rankings are here to stay", says the rector of the UB, Joan Guàrdia, who grants them the value of reflecting part of a complex reality, "but you cannot run an institution thinking about the rankings". And I feel satisfaction that the UB remains among the top 70 in Europe. He warns that what makes the difference is the funding of universities and that these drops, still anecdotal, but which condition the system of grants granted by governments to send students there, can become a reality.
Although it is difficult to compete with those campuses, he continues, able to sign award winners. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2016, the Scottish Fraser Stoddart, for example, and his research team, will leave Northwestern University in the United States and start working in September at the University of Hong Kong, after turning 81 years old.
Despite the fall, the Spanish system continues to show great dynamism and leadership if you look at the result of the areas of knowledge that the ARWU also evaluates. In all disciplines, with the exception of aerospace and ocean engineering, there are Spanish faculties among the top 200 in the world. And they stand out in areas such as veterinary medicine, tourism, food technology or sport.
It highlights an area of knowledge as demanding as medicine, with competition among the American campuses of excellence. The UB is the 45th in the world. Or veterinary from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), number 5 on the world list. Complutense de Madrid (UCM), 15th, also ranks highly in this discipline; Murcia (UM), 34th, or Córdoba (UC), 41st.
Pompeu Fabra Public Health (UPF) is 25th out of the 2,500 universities analysed. This university also excels in Economics, 40th in the world, and competes with American and British universities.
Civil Engineering at the Polytechnic of Madrid (UPM) is at number 6 and in this area the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) is also among the top 100. The UPM is ranked 43rd in Instrumentation and Technology (the Seville campus, in position number 50).
The list goes on. In Food Technology, Spain has a great result, not only because the University of Valencia (UV) is in 26th place and the University of Granada is in 30th place, but because there are 17 Spanish universities among the first 200.
The same thing happens in Tourism, led by Valencia (38) and followed by Las Palmas (39), but with 15 universities among the first two hundred.
