The UOC is the highest rated online university in Spain

According to the CYD ranking for 2022, which assesses Spanish universities based on a series of performance indicators, the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) is Spain's leading online university. This classification has given the UOC fourteen high-performance indicators, four more than it had a year ago, and places it ahead of the International University of La Rioja (UNIR), which has ten; the Valencian International University (VIU), which has nine; the National University of Distance Education (UNED), which has eight; Universidad Isabel I (UI1), which has six, and Madrid Open University (UDIMA), which has three. The UOC has obtained a total of 37 performance indicators in this ranking, which covers 79 universities in Spain, 28 fields of knowledge and 3,052 programmes.

Four of the fourteen high-performance indicators received by the UOC are in the field of knowledge transfer: in revenue from licenses, in revenue from continuing education, in the number of spin-offs and in publications with private companies. It has also obtained an average-performance indicator for private funds cleared, and two low-performance indicators for patents per faculty member and publications cited in patents. These results reflect the work done by the university in recent years to create closer ties of cooperation with businesses, other universities and R&D institutions, in line with the third objective that all universities must achieve: knowledge and technology transfer.

According to this ranking, the UOC has three high-performance indicators in the field of research. Specifically, it has green lights in highly-cited publications, in standardized impact of the publications and in research periods. It has also obtained average-performance indicators in external research funds cleared, external research funds attracted, publications per faculty member, interdisciplinary publications, and publications in open access. Finally, the UOC has obtained a low-performance indicator for post-doctoral fellowships.

The UOC has also obtained three other high-performance indicators in the area of teaching and learning. In specific terms, it obtained green lights for the success rate and the percentage of bachelor's degree and master's degree students from other autonomous communities.

For its international orientation, the UOC has received two high-performance indicators, one for foreign teaching staff and the other for doctoral theses by foreign students. It has also obtained average-performance indicators for internships abroad and international publications, and three low-performance indicators in bachelor's degrees taught in a foreign language, master's degrees taught in a foreign language, and student mobility.

The CYD ranking also assesses universities' contribution to regional development. In this area, the UOC has a high-performance indicator for regional publications and publications with businesses in the region, as well as low-performance indicators for internships with businesses in the region and regional business funds.

The Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona comes highest overall

In the overall ranking, the fifteen Spanish universities with the most high-performance indicators are Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, University of Navarra, Autonomous University of Madrid, Pompeu Fabra University, University of Deusto, University of Barcelona, Comillas Pontificial University, Carlos III University of Madrid, Ramon Llull University, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, Universitat de València-Estudi General, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, University of Girona, and University of Salamanca.

Eight of these fifteen universities that lead the ranking are Catalan: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (with 28 high-performance indicators), Pompeu Fabra University (24), University of Barcelona (22), Ramon Llull University (20), Universitat Internacional de Catalunya (20), Universitat Rovira i Virgili (18), Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (18), and University of Girona (17).

The five autonomous communities that obtained the most high-performance indicators are: Navarre, the Basque Country, Catalonia, the Valencian Community, and Madrid.

The ninth year of the CYD ranking

This ninth ranking presents the latest results for ten knowledge areas linked to the teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects, which also show how academic opportunities for women at university in these areas have evolved. Among the new aspects included in this year's ranking were its analysis of the universities with the highest performance in architecture and how educational centres have adapted to the hybrid format in teaching and assessment.

The results of this edition were obtained after an analysis of 79 universities in Spain, 28 fields of knowledge and 3,052 programmes.