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Low financial resources, scientific production and business cooperation limit the international development of Spanish universities

A good number of Spanish universities appear in international rankings but are not listed among the top 100, or even among the most powerful ones. Although the Spanish University System (SUE) is aligned with those of the countries to which the world’s leading universities belong in terms of size, rates of young people enrolled, student structure by level of study and endowment of teachers per student, its universities are not at the top of these world-known rankings. Its weaknesses compared to world leaders appear in the availability of financial resources -Spanish spending on universities equals 1.1% of GDP, far from the 2.5% in the United States and 1.5% in other countries-. In addition, Spanish universities have lower research productivity with less impact, less university-business collaboration, low level of internationalization of teachers (only 3%) and of students (3.7% are foreign students compared to 7.5% on average in EU universities). Furthermore, graduates in Spain register higher unemployment rates and a higher percentage are employed in jobs that require less qualifications. Thus, having world leading universities requires improving in these areas, as well as, offering different opportunities to universities with possibilities to compete globally.