Last modified 01/25/2024

How to choose a good University in Spain:

Studying in Spain involves first researching the best universities in Spain. To do that, we will use rankings made by Spanish institutions and private institutions dedicated to evaluating universities. Our findings show that big Spanish universities are not always among the best in the world.

Its language makes Spain the most attractive country for Spanish-speaking migrants, because they can start studying at once in universities, without undergoing a Spanish language orientation phase, which is the case for English-speaking countries.

Besides, Spain has agreements for the recognition of joint degrees with some of the origin countries. This would make it possible to work in the chosen career, for both undergraduate and postgraduate students. In Spain the most important public universities are over one hundred years old, and most private universities were created at the end of the XX century.

The 2010- 2011 QS World University Ranking has no pleasant results for Spanish universities, but they are still ahead of Latin American universities.

1. Universidad de Barcelona, rank 148.
2. Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona, rank 213.
3. Universitat Autónoma de Madrid, rank 213.
4. Universidad Complutense de Madrid, rank 269.
5. Universidad Pompeu Fabra, rank 336.
6. Universidad de Navarra, rank 353.

During the last months of 2010, Universidad Complutense de Madrid carried out a research on university students from 60 Spanish universities with on-site education. They had quality criteria expressed as number of computer resources, research budget, patents for inventions and students academic performance.

Their conclusion is that the top five universities are:

1. Universidad de Navarra, overall score 100. Private university.
2. Universidad de Córdoba, overall score 62.46. Public university.
3. Universidad Rovira y Virgil de Tarragona, overall score 62.12. Public university.
4. Universidad de Oviedo, overall score 61.93. Public university.
5. Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, overall score 61.61. Public university.

Every year, the “El Mundo” newspaper also publishes its ranking for the best Spanish universities. In 2010, it has sorted the list according to the most popular careers, hence the name Ranking 50 carreras. It is also sorted by type of university. Out of the top twenty universities, only two are private, and they are highlighted in bold.

1. Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
2. Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona.
3. Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.
4. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.
5. Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña
6. Universidad Carlos III.
7. Universidad de Navarra.
8. Universidad de Barcelona.
9. Universidad Pompeu Fabra
10. Universidad de Granada
11. Universidad Ramón Lulli
12. Universidad Politécnica de Valencia.
13. Universidad Santiago de Compostela
14. Universidad la Coruña.
15. Universidad de Alicante
16. Universidad de Salamanca
17. Universidad de Sevilla
18. Universidad Alcalá de Henares.
19. Universidad de Valencia
20. Universidad Islas Baleares.

The Gaceta Universitaria website prepares the next ranking :

1. Universidad Complutense de Madrid
2. Universitat Autónoma de Madrid
3. Universidad de Barcelona
4. Universidad Pompeu Fabra
5. Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona

It can be concluded that the top four universities in Spain are:

1. Universidad de Barcelona.
2. Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona.
3. Universitat Autónoma de Madrid.
4. Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

It can be noted that these top universities are located in the big cities of Barcelona and Madrid. They are all public universities over forty years old.

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