UC3M leads U-Ranking 2023

The Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) remains in first place in Spain for its general performance, according to the U-Ranking 2023, prepared by the BBVA Foundation and the Valencian Institute of Economic Research (Ivie, in its Spanish acronym). UC3M shares this national leadership position with the Politécnica de Cataluña and Pompeu Fabra universities, like the year before.

In second place in the national ranking are the Universitat Politècnica de València and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. And in third place, there are four other public universities: Autónoma de Madrid, Politécnica de Madrid, Universitat de Barcelona and Universitat Rovira i Virgili.

Both teaching activities and research and innovation activities are taken into account when preparing this ranking. UC3M also ranks first in Spain for teaching, along with two other public universities and three private institutions. UC3M also excels in research and innovation, where the ten best-performing Spanish universities are public, ranking third nationally along with another university.

The eleventh edition of this ranking analyses 20 indicators related to quality, internationalisation, production and available resources. In teaching, aspects such as minimum marks, the number of lecturers per 100 students, the percentage of foreign students and students in international mobility programmes, and evaluation and success rates, for example, are taken into account. In research and innovation, the citations per document, the average impact factor, PhD staff contracts, the percentage of publications in journals in the first quartile, the number of patents granted per PhD lecturer, the competitive public resources obtained and the PhD theses read, among others, are evaluated.

Employability analysis

This new edition of the U-Ranking report also carries out an analysis of the employability of Spanish university graduates for the first time. The study focused on the work experience of graduates who graduated in 2014 and entered the labour market in the growth years prior to the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In this global ranking of employability by university, UC3M is among the top five Spanish public universities, behind the Politécnica de Madrid, Politécnica de Cartagena, Politécnica de Catalunya and Pública de Navarra universities.

According to other conclusions obtained, Spanish university graduates enjoy significant advantages when it comes to employability compared to other levels of studies: they suffer less from the impact of unemployment, are less sensitive to economic crises, have higher salaries and better quality jobs, with a large proportion being concentrated in highly qualified occupations. In the analysis of the determinants of employability, the degree completed is the variable that has the greatest impact on employability and job quality. The second most important determinant for employability is the autonomous community where residence is established after graduation.