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22 universities that stand out for their performance or volume account for 59% of the Spanish University System's results in teaching, research, and job placement

U-Ranking 2025 offers, for the first time, university rankings in the five major branches of knowledge

A university’s performance in teaching, research, and graduate employment indicators depends both on its size and on how efficiently it uses its resources. To analyze both dimensions, U-Ranking constructs two university rankings, one based on total results and another based on performance or productivity. The fifteen universities at the top of each ranking make up a group of 22 universities (as eight appear on both lists), which together account for 59% of the total results of the Spanish University System (SUE). Eight of these universities appear in both rankings, i.e., they are among the top 15 in the performance (productivity) and volume (total output) rankings, combining high performance with large size. This small group of universities—University of Barcelona, the Autonomous Universities of Madrid and Barcelona, the University of Valencia, the Polytechnic Universities of Madrid, Catalonia, and Valencia, and the University of Santiago de Compostela—is particularly relevant to the volume of results of the SUE, as they generate 26% of the total results.

Surrounding these eight are universities that stand out for their strong results, made up of highly productive but smaller universities and, therefore, with lower volumes: Pompeu Fabra University, which leads the performance ranking, Carlos III University of Madrid, Rovira i Virgili University, Vigo University, Cantabria University, Girona University, and the University of Navarra, the only private university in the group of 22 outstanding institutions. Another set of  universities with good results in the production volume ranking, but with lower performance or productivity are: Complutense University of Madrid, which leads this ranking, the Universities of Granada, Seville, Basque Country, Zaragoza, Malaga, and UNED.

U-Ranking, a non-profit project of the BBVA Foundation and Ivie, has just published the main results of its thirteenth edition, corresponding to 2025. U-Ranking, directed by Francisco Pérez and Joaquín Aldás (University of Valencia and Ivie), with the participation of Irene Zaera and Rodrigo Aragón (Ivie), offers results from different perspectives on all public universities (48) and 24 private universities that publish information on the necessary indicators to compile the rankings. These rankings are based on both performance (productivity) and volume of results, analyzing teaching, research, and innovation. New this year, the results also include graduate employment rates, measured by the Social Security affiliation rate of graduates, the percentage of graduates working in positions related to their university education, and the average contribution base as an approximation of salary level.  In addition, U-Ranking 2025 breaks down university results, in terms of performance and volume, for five branches of education: Arts and Humanities, Social and Legal Sciences, Sciences, Engineering and Architecture, and Health Sciences.

Results: Performance vs. size

The results achieved by universities in teaching, research and innovation, and graduate employment depend on both their performance and their size. High-performing universities contribute more to the total volume of results when they are large; conversely, if their larger size is not matched by good performance, the overall results of the system will suffer more. Fortunately, a significant number of Spanish universities combine size and performance positively. The 22 universities that stand out for their performance and/or volume represent 30% of the institutions analyzed in U-Ranking, but generate 59% of the SUE’s total results. If we break down the three dimensions considered by U-Ranking, this outstanding group generates 55% of teaching results, 63% of research output, and 54% of job placement results. Within the 22, eight institutions stand out both for their performance—efficiency in resource use—and their size: they represent 11% of the universities included in U-Ranking 2025, but contribute 26% of the SUE’s total results: 23% of teaching results, 30% of research and innovation results, and 22% of job placement results.

Leading universities in U-Ranking or U-Ranking Volume

In addition to the 22 top-ranked universities, U-Ranking 2025 identifies two other groups: one with intermediate results, comprising 20 universities, and another with below-average results, including the remaining 30 institutions. These two groups contribute less to the system’s overall results than the percentage they represent in the system, confirming that they are generally smaller and/or less productive. Universities with average results account for 28% of the institutions analyzed, but contribute only 19% of teaching, research, and employment output. The group of universities with the lowest production and performance indicators account for 42% of the institutions analyzed by U-Ranking, but generate just 22% of the system’s results.

Volume vs. performance rankings

The two rankings offered by U-Ranking serve different purposes depending on the objective pursued. The performance ranking focuses on productivity, i.e., how efficiently universities manage their resources, while the volume ranking reflects their total contribution to society in terms of human capital, scientific output, graduate employment, taking into account university size. In the case of large public universities,  academic offerings include degrees maintained, regardless of performance, due to commitment to certain branches or degrees that would otherwise be destined to disappear from the SUE map.

The performance ranking is led by a group of eight universities: seven public institutions (Pompeu Fabra University, Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Polytechnic University of Valencia, Autonomous University of Barcelona, University of Barcelona, Autonomous University of Madrid, and Carlos III University) and one private (University of Navarra). In terms of production volume, the Complutense University of Madrid tops the list, followed in second place by University of Barcelona and University of Valencia, and, in third place, the Universities of Granada, Seville, and the Basque Country. While Pompeu Fabra University, which leads in performance, has 12,830 students and offers 30 degrees, Complutense University of Madrid, the leader in terms of volume, has nearly 61,000 students and offers 76 different degrees programs.

If we look at the classification in each of the three dimensions considered for university activities—teaching, research and innovation, and graduate employment—public universities stand out particularly in research and innovation, both in performance and volume. In terms of research productivity, the top three are Catalan universities: Pompeu Fabra University, Autonomous University of Barcelona, and University of Barcelona. For research volume, University of Barcelona remains in first place, but is joined by the Complutense University of Madrid and, in a second group, the University of Valencia. No private university appears at the top of the research and innovation rankings. The average performance of private universities in this area of activity is 48 percentage points lower than that of public universities, although there is also enormous heterogeneity among the latter. In fact, the differences between universities in research performance are the most pronounced, with the performance of the highest-ranked university being 10 times that of the lowest-ranked one.

On the contrary, private universities manage to dominate top positions in the teaching performance ranking. The list is led by eight universities: two public (Polytechnic University of Valencia and Carlos III University) and six private (University of Navarra, Ramón Llull University, IE University, Mondragón University, International University of Catalonia, and Pontifical University of Comillas). This reflects a notable specialization and outstanding performance of private universities in teaching. Their average teaching performance exceeds that of public universities by 6 percentage points, and there is also less heterogeneity among them than in research and innovation activities. However, this strong position of private universities in teaching is not repeated in the ranking by volume of teaching output, due to the importance of the number of students trained in this classification. The Complutense University of Madrid tops this ranking, followed by five large public universities (University of Granada, Valencia, Basque Country, Barcelona, and Seville).

Graduate employment: The third dimension in U-Ranking 2025

To provide a more comprehensive evaluation of university results, U-Ranking 2025 includes a third dimension: graduate employment. This ranking is based on the results achieved by graduates in the early years after competing their studies, based on employment rates, relevance of that job to their education, and salary levels. Differences in employment outcomes between universities are smaller than in the two activities analyzed. The top group in the employment performance ranking includes 25 universities with similar results, the majority of which are private (17), led by the International University of Catalonia.

Once again, when analyzing the employment volume ranking, which takes into account size and, therefore, how many graduates from each university enter the labor market, the classification shows a different picture. The Complutense University of Madrid leads, followed by the Universities of Seville and Basque Country in a second group, and those of Barcelona, Granada, and Valencia in the third.  As noted, taking into account the volume of results is also important because, although some universities stand out for their performance in job placement, the role of larger universities can be decisive due to their ability to place a high number of graduates from different fields of study into the workforce.

Differences by field of study

The thirteenth edition of U-Ranking introduces new indicators to take advantage of the greater and better information currently available on the Spanish university system, and offers a new breakdown of the rankings into five major fields of knowledge: Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences, Engineering and Architecture, Health Sciences, and Sciences. Since universities are not homogeneous across these fields—their weight in the activities of each university is not the same, and sometimes they are not present in some, nor is their performance—it is interesting to evaluate their position in each one, based on the best information available.

The volume ranking provides greater clarity in identifying the strength of universities in each of the five branches of study, as some of them are present in certain universities but have only a small presence. In terms of results volume in Arts and Humanities, the Complutense and University of Barcelona are in the lead, followed by Autonomous University of Barcelona and University of Granada. In Social and Legal Sciences, it is once again the Complutense, together with the University of Valencia, that lead the ranking, ahead of the Universities of Barcelona and Granada. For its part, the University of Barcelona is the best ranked in the field of Sciences, followed by the Complutense and the Autonomous University of Madrid. The polytechnic universities of Madrid and Barcelona lead the field of Architecture and Engineering, followed by the Polytechnic University of Valencia. Finally, in Health Sciences, the Complutense and Barcelona University lead, with the University of Valencia close behind. The U-Ranking website will be updated, as well as its Choose a University tool, which allows families and students to explore and compare over 3,600 bachelor’s degrees. This interactive tool is a useful and easy-to-use resource to help students decide which degree to pursue. It also provides information on cut-off grades, tuition fees, and the employment outcomes of 2,730 bachelor’s degrees.