Spain is losing competitiveness in higher education on the international stage, according to the 2024 edition of the Global 2000 list of the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR). Although 53 universities, led by the University of Barcelona, ??appear in the CWUR ranking, which compiles a classification of the best 2,000 universities in the world this year, the decline of Spanish centers is evident. In the Global 2000, only 14 institutions in Spain improve compared to last year, with one maintaining its place (the University of Barcelona) and 38 falling in the classification.
What is the cause? According to this report, the decline of Spanish universities is due to a drop in research performance, in a context of intensifying competition from well-funded institutions, according to this report made public today.
The University of Barcelona maintains its 134th position from last year. Improvement in employability, but decrease in research. The Autonomous University of Barcelona falls 6 places to 196, while the Complutense of Madrid rises 5 (to 244), ahead of the University of Valencia (296) and the Autonomous University of Madrid (304). The Spanish top ten is completed by the University of Granada (348), the University of the Basque Country (369), the Polytechnic of Catalunya (384), the University of Seville (408) and the Pompeu Fabra (416).
For Nadim Mahassen, president of the CWUR, “it is clear that Spain’s position in education and research is under increasing pressure following the rise of higher education systems around the world. In the last five years, Spain’s global share in scientific research has fallen by 7%. Without additional government investment in research and development, Spain faces the possibility of declining even further in the future.”
This year’s ranking continues to be led by American universities. But it also has serious threats to the competitiveness of Chinese centers. According to Mahassen, “While this year’s rankings confirm the world-class position of the US higher education sector, the decline of nearly two-thirds of its institutions is concerning, amid stiff competition from universities. Chinese.”
And this scenario is repeated with universities in the United Kingdom, Russia and Japan, while France experienced improvements as a result of the increasing number of mergers between its institutions, according to this report.
China’s notable rise (95% of Chinese universities are ranked better than last year) is due to heavy investment in research and development, and the hiring of talented researchers in classified areas, such as semiconductors, from the United States and other places through the Qiming program. “With Chinese universities challenging their Western counterparts, American and European institutions cannot afford to be complacent,” says Mahassen.
CWUR, publisher of the largest academic ranking of global universities, analyzed 62 million results-based data points to rank universities around the world according to four factors: quality of education (25%), employability (25% ), quality of teaching staff (10%) and research (40%). This year, 20,966 universities were ranked, and those at the top made the Global 2000 list, which includes institutions from 94 countries.
According to this ranking, for the thirteenth consecutive year, Harvard is the best university in the world. It is followed by two other American private institutions, MIT and Stanford, while the UK’s Cambridge and Oxford, ranked fourth and fifth respectively, are the world’s leading public higher education institutions.
Europe remains a major player in the rankings (639 institutions in the top 2,000), but the overall picture is bleak amid increasing global competition. In the UK, the success of Cambridge and Oxford masks the decline of more than 70% of British institutions in the rankings.
