The UOC is in the second ranked group of the best young universities in Spain

The British higher education specialist Times Higher Education (THE) has recently published the 2023 edition of its Young University Rankings, which focus on universities less than 50 years old around the world. The Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) obtained excellent results this year, climbing four places in the ranking for Spain: while THE ranked the UOC in sixth position a year ago, this year it has ranked it second, together with Ramon Llull University and the University of Vic - Central University of Catalonia, and only behind Pompeu Fabra University (in 18th position). The UOC is in the 101-150 bracket in the international ranking.

The ranking takes five areas into account when measuring universities' level of excellence in higher education: teaching, research, citations, international outlook and industry income. The UOC obtained the following results: 25.8 for teaching, 27.6 for research, 81.2 for citations, 48.1 for international outlook and 37.7 for industry income.

The global list of young universities is topped by Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and Paris Sciences et Lettres in France.

The UOC's rankings expert Lídia Toda pointed out that "the institutions with the longest histories have traditionally topped the major rankings, in which they have been classified based on their reputation, but the Times Higher Education Young University Rankings shows that young universities must be taken into account in terms of their contribution to society".

The THE ranking is considered one of the most prestigious and transparent classifications in the field of higher education, rivalled only by the Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities and the QS World University Rankings. The UOC made its first appearance in the overall ranking in 2018, as the only online university in Spain.