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Barcelona, university capital: Spain’s three best universities lead from the Catalan city
Barcelona consolidates its position as Spain’s academic epicentre.
According to the World University Rankings 2026, produced by Times Higher Education magazine, the country’s three best universities bear Barcelona’s stamp: the Universitat de Barcelona (UB), the Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and Pompeu Fabra (UPF).
UB leads the national ranking and is placed 145th in the world, standing out particularly in knowledge transfer (92.4 points) and research quality (88.5). With an overall score of 62 points, it maintains its leadership for another year as Spain’s most prestigious university institution.
It is closely followed by UAB, in position 183 with an overall score of 59.8 points, and UPF, in 187th with 59.5 points. Both also stand out for their strong research activity, with scores of 84.6 and 87.5 respectively.
In the rest of Catalunya, Rovira i Virgili (URV) and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) appear in the 601–800 band, while universities such as UOC, Ramon Llull, UdL and UVic-UCC are among the thousand best in the world.
On a global scale, Oxford, MIT and Cambridge lead the podium, but the message is clear: Barcelona shines more than ever as a capital of knowledge and university innovation.