The "Young University Ranking" by Times Higher Education has put the URV in 76th place out of a list of the top 200 universities in the world under the age of fifty

The URV consolidates its position in this ranking, which has increased from 150 to 200 universities under the age of fifty around the world. The universities are ranked on the basis of thirteen indicators in five categories: teaching (learning environment), research (volume and reputation), citations (impact of published research), international outlook (of staff, students and professors) and innovation and knowledge transfer. Each of these has a specific weight in the final score.

The URV has climbed seven places above its position in the 2016 ranking (from 83rd to 76th) because it has increased its scores in all indicators and its overall score by 2.7 points.

The URV is in third place among the Catalan universities, behind the UPF (17th) and the UAB (18th) and fourth place among Spanish universities, behind the aforementioned Catalan institutions and the Autonomous University of Madrid in 66th place.

This year the ranking has also compared each university with other institutions of a similar age by classifying them into three categories: Generation X, Generation Y and Millennials. The URV is in Generation Y (created between 1986 and 1999) in position number 24.

The 2017 ranking has altered the methodology to give fewer points for reputation than in previous years and to place greater emphasis on the special characteristics of young universities. In fact, this classification demonstrates that those on the list have managed to have a large impact in areas such as teaching, research and knowledge transfer, compared with traditional institutions who have often had a lot longer to build their reputations.

The first edition of the ranking, called “100 under 50”, was published in 2012 with the aim of demonstrating that excellence can be achieved in a relatively short period of time. This year, first place again goes to the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (founded in 1969), which has occupied the top spot since 2015. The ranking contains universities from 48 countries around the world. The United Kingdom has the highest number of institutions on the list (27) followed by Australia (23), France (16), Spain (15) and Germany (11).

Times Higher Education is a weekly journal published in London and specialising in Higher Education. It is the UK’s leading publication in its field and has an international following. With the support of Elsevier and the Scopus database it draws up a series of international university rankings every year.

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