University of Barcelona

The University of Barcelona (UB; Catalan: Universitat de Barcelona), formerly also known as Central University of Barcelona is a public research university located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It was established in 1450. With 76,000 students, it is one of the biggest universities in Spain and has also been ranked 1st in the country in most of the 2025 rankings.

It has 106 departments and more than 5,000 full-time researchers, technicians and research assistants, most of whom work in the 243 research groups as recognized and supported by the Government of Catalonia. In 2010, the UB was awarded 175 national research grants and 17 European grants and participated in over 500 joint research projects with the business sector, generating an overall research income of 70 million euros. The work of these groups is overseen by the UB's research centres and institutes which collaborate with leading research institutions and networks in Spain and abroad. The UB is also home to three large research foundations: the Barcelona Science Park Foundation (PCB), which includes the Institute of Biomedical Research of Barcelona (IRBB); the August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS); and the Bellvitge Institute for Biomedical Research (IDIBELL). The UB is also a degree-awarding body of the Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals (IBEI).

History

Founding

The university was founded under the royal prerogative granted by King Alfons el Magnànim on 3 November 1450. For forty-nine years prior to this, however, the city had a fledgling medical school (or Estudi General, as the universities were known at that time), founded by King Martí of Aragon, but neither the Consell de Cent (Barcelona's Council of One Hundred) nor the city's other leading institutions had given it their official recognition, considering it an intrusion on their respective jurisdictions. Alfons el Magnànim's prerogative, though, was granted at the petition of the Consell de Cent, and so the council was always to consider the Estudi General created in 1450 as the city's true university, since it was very much under its control and patronage.

The process that culminated in the foundation of the Estudi General of Barcelona can be traced back to the end of the fourteenth century, with the opening of a number of schools under the patronage of the City Hall, the cathedral schools and the Dominican convent of Santa Caterina, which established itself as a major cultural centre. It was King Martí the Humane who set in motion the process that would result in the foundation of the University of Barcelona. In his letter written 23 January 1398, and addressed to the councillors of Barcelona, he informed them that he had sought the Pope's permission to found a university in the city.

Despite the Consell de Cent's refusal to accept the concession issued by the King to found an Estudi General, on 10 January 1401, Martí founded the Estudi General of Medicine in Barcelona under his royal prerogative, granting it the same privileges as those enjoyed by the University of Montpellier. In another document, signed in Valencia on 9 May 1402, King Martí sought to promote the Estudi General of Medicine with the appointment of a number of teachers of the liberal arts, without which the study of medicine was virtually useless. From that day forth, the Estudi was known as the Estudi of Medicine and the Arts.

The prerogative granted by King Alphonse the Magnanimous in 1450, authorizing the Consell de Cent to found a university in Barcelona, was the culmination of the process initiated in 1398.

For a number of reasons, in particular the civil war that raged during the reign of John II and the subsequent conflicts involving the peasant farmers, the official Estudi General of Barcelona did not begin to develop until the reign of Fernando the Catholic; but it was under Charles I, in 1536, that the foundation stone was laid for the new university building at the top end of La Rambla. From that moment on the university began to carry out its work as normal despite financial difficulties and in-fighting between university teachers, though this was not to stop some illustrious professors from making their mark in their respective fields and creating their own schools of academic followers.

Faculties

As of 2013, the University of Barcelona comprises 100 departments grouped in 18 faculties and two university schools, one school and nine attached schools.

• Faculties
• Faculty of Biology
• Faculty of Chemistry
• Faculty of Dentistry
• Faculty of Earth Sciences
• Faculty of Economics and Business
• Faculty of Education
• Faculty of Fine Arts
• Faculty of Geography and History
• Faculty of Law
• Faculty of Library and Information Sciences
• Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Sciences
• Faculty of Medicine and Information Sciences
• Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences
• Faculty of Philology
• Faculty of Philosophy
• Faculty of Physics
• Faculty of Psychology
• University Schools
• Barcelona Institute of International Studies (IBEI)
• Institute of Education Sciences
• Doctoral school
• Attached schools
• Barcelona Technology School
• Center for Advanced Studies in Cinema and Audiovisuals
• Center for Advanced Studies in Public Relations
• National Institute of Physical Education
• Institute of Lifelong Learning (IL3-UB)
• The New Interactive Technologies School
• University School of Nursing
• University School of Tourism
• Public Safety Institute of Catalonia

The UB offers 74 undergraduate programs, 349 graduate programs and 48 doctorate programs to 63,000 students. It also has 30 research centers.

Library

The library holds about 2,000,000 volumes, and is the second-biggest university library in Spain.

International rankings

In 2020, QS World University Rankings by Subject placed the UB in the top 50 for the following subjects: Anatomy and Physiology (14th), Library Science and Information Management (43rd), Philosophy (45th) and Archaeology (47th), while the ShanghaiRanking's Global Ranking of Academic Subjects (ARWU) placed it 48th for Clinical Medicine.

THE Europe Teaching Rankings 2019 ranked the UB 29th and THE 2020 Impact Rankings ranked it 91st overall, with 14th for Quality Education and 43rd for Partnerships for the Goals. The QS Graduate Employability Rankings 2020 ranked it 80th. THE2026 lists the university as 145th globally.

Overall, the University of Barcelona has been ranked 1st in Spain in most of the 2024 rankings and is located around the 50th place in Europe.

Эх сурвалж: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)