International University of Catalonia

The Universitat Internacional de Catalunya —commonly branded as UIC Barcelona and known in English as the International University of Catalonia— is a private university in Catalonia, Spain, with campuses in Barcelona and Sant Cugat del Vallès. It was recognised as a private university by the Parliament of Catalonia through Law 11/1997, of 1 October 1997.

The university has two main campuses, Campus Barcelona and Campus Sant Cugat, and offers programmes in fields including health sciences, dentistry, architecture, business, communication, law, education and the humanities. In the 2024–2025 academic year, it reported 9,415 enrolled students, 704 academic and research staff, and 498 administrative and service staff.

In that academic year, its official academic offer comprised 43 degrees: 16 bachelor's degrees, 23 university master's degrees and four doctoral programmes. The university also reported 1,979 international undergraduate and postgraduate students from 109 countries, as well as 497 mobility agreements with foreign universities and institutions.

UIC Barcelona appears in international and Spanish university rankings. In the QS World University Rankings 2027 it was placed in the 901–950 band worldwide, and in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2026 its Dentistry area was ranked 36th worldwide and 2nd in Spain.

History

The creation of the university was promoted by the Fundació Familiar Catalana, which began the process of establishing a new private university in Catalonia in the mid-1990s. The Parliament of Catalonia approved its recognition through Law 11/1997, of 1 October 1997, which authorised the new institution to begin academic activity once the relevant administrative requirements had been met.

The law initially provided for several teaching centres, including a Faculty of Legal and Political Sciences, a Faculty of Health Sciences, a Faculty of Humanities, a Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences and a Technical School of Architecture. According to the university's institutional chronology, Jordi Cervós Navarro was presented as the future rector in 1996 and became the university's first rector in 1997.

Jordi Cervós Navarro was succeeded by Josep Argemí i Renom in 2001, Pere Alavedra Ribot in 2010, Xavier Gil Mur in 2015 and Alfonso Méndiz Noguero in 2021.

Institutional identity and governance

The Universitat Internacional de Catalunya has the legal personality of a private foundation. Its organisational and operating rules state that it has its own legal personality, full legal capacity and its own assets. The Board of Trustees is the institution's highest governing body and is responsible for appointments including the rector, vice-rectors, secretary general, general manager, deans and directors of schools and institutes.

The university defines its institutional philosophy in terms of Christian humanism and an integral conception of university education. Religious and spiritual services are offered by the university chaplaincy to members of the university community who freely wish to use them, and pastoral care is entrusted to priests of the Prelature of Opus Dei.

Campuses and facilities

UIC Barcelona has two main campuses. Campus Barcelona, located in the Sarrià-Sant Gervasi district of Barcelona, hosts a significant part of teaching in areas such as business, communication, law, education, humanities and architecture. Campus Sant Cugat, located in Sant Cugat del Vallès, is mainly devoted to health sciences, including medicine, nursing, physiotherapy and dentistry.

According to institutional data for 2024–2025, Campus Barcelona had 30,628.56 m2 of built space and Campus Sant Cugat had 23,067 m2. The university's teaching and professional facilities include university clinics, simulation laboratories and practice-based learning spaces. The university identifies three main clinics: Cuides UIC Barcelona, the University Dental Clinic and SUPPORT, the University Psychology and Psychiatry Clinic.

Academic organisation

The university is organised into faculties, schools and institutes. According to its institutional list of centres, it includes faculties in economic and social sciences, communication, law, education, humanities, medicine and health sciences, dentistry and architecture, as well as university institutes and the Doctoral School.

In the 2024–2025 academic year, UIC Barcelona reported 43 official degrees: 16 bachelor's degrees, 23 university master's degrees and four doctoral programmes. Its bachelor's degree offer covered fields including business administration and management, architecture, bioengineering, biomedicine, communication, law, education, physiotherapy, humanities, nursing, medicine, dentistry and psychology.

Faculties, schools and academic heads

The university's plenary Governing Board includes the deans of the faculties, the director of the School of Architecture, department directors and the heads of university institutes.

Institutes, doctoral school and related entities

In addition to its faculties and schools, the university has a Doctoral School and several university institutes or academic and professional centres linked to research, knowledge transfer and specialised training.

University clinics

UIC Barcelona has university clinics linked to teaching, care and professional practice. The university identifies three main clinics: Cuides UIC Barcelona, the University Dental Clinic and SUPPORT, the University Psychology and Psychiatry Clinic.

Research and knowledge transfer

The university conducts research through research groups, institutes, chairs and competitive and non-competitive projects. According to institutional data for the 2024–2025 academic year, it had 24 research groups, 167 active research projects and 14 corporate or institutional chairs. In that academic year, the university reported 320 articles in indexed journals, including 242 indexed in Web of Science and 157 in first-quartile journals.

In 2018, UIC Barcelona obtained the European Commission's "HR Excellence in Research" award, related to the European human resources strategy for researchers. The university also participates in European university cooperation initiatives, including the EduCare 5.0 alliance, which received the European Commission's Seal of Excellence under the European Universities call.

Internationalisation and university community

In the 2024–2025 academic year, UIC Barcelona reported 1,979 international undergraduate and postgraduate students from 109 nationalities, and 90 international professors among its academic and research staff. The university also reported 497 mobility agreements with foreign universities and institutions.

According to the same institutional data, 65.89% of undergraduate and postgraduate students were women and 34.11% were men. Among academic and research staff, 51.42% were women and 48.58% were men. The university also reported a cumulative total of 30,753 alumni.

Rankings and recognition

The university's position in international and Spanish rankings varies according to methodology, the field assessed and the number of institutions included. The university publishes its ranking results through its transparency portal.

In the QS World University Rankings 2027, UIC Barcelona was placed in the 901–950 band worldwide and tied 25th among Spanish universities included in the ranking. In the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2026, it appeared in the 1001–1200 band worldwide and between 27th and 38th in Spain. In the THE Impact Rankings 2025, the university appeared in the 301–400 band worldwide.

By subject, the university's strongest ranking result was in Dentistry, where it ranked 36th worldwide and 2nd in Spain in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2026. In the Times Higher Education World University Rankings by Subject 2026, the university appeared in the 401–500 band in Education Studies, 601–800 in Medical and Health and 601–800 in Social Sciences.

In Spain, the 2026 CYD Ranking placed UIC Barcelona 6th among 84 Spanish universities according to the number of high-performance indicators. In the same edition, the university ranked 1st in Spain in Education. In 2026, Forbes España included UIC Barcelona in its list of twenty leading universities in Spain.

Rectors

Since its foundation, the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya has had five rectors. Jordi Cervós Navarro was a neuropathologist; Josep Argemí i Renom is a professor of paediatrics; Pere Alavedra Ribot is an industrial engineer; Xavier Gil Mur is a professor of materials engineering; and Alfonso Méndiz Noguero is a professor of audiovisual communication and advertising.

Alumni

According to institutional data for the 2024–2025 academic year, UIC Barcelona had 30,753 alumni, including 15,524 from bachelor's, licentiate or diploma programmes, 4,465 from university master's degrees, 2,473 from institutional master's degrees, 592 from doctoral programmes and 7,420 from postgraduate programmes.

The university has an Alumni community focused on alumni relations, employability and professional links with the institution. People who have studied at the university and have Wikipedia articles include singer Alfred García, historian and politician Santi Vila, dentist and politician Ignacio Garriga, historian Fernando Sánchez Costa and Argentine politician Sandra Pettovello.

Honorary doctorates

The university maintains a record of people invested as doctors honoris causa. The first honorary doctorate awarded by the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya was received by Ramon Guardans i Vallès in 2005. More recent recipients include Aldo Roberto Boccaccini and Janne Haaland Matláry, invested in 2025; Eduardo Bruera, invested in 2023; Verónica Boix-Mansilla and Paul Levi, invested in 2021; and Rivka Oxman and Pierpaolo Donati, invested in 2017.

Эх сурвалж: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)