University of Barcelona

Person in charge/Contact Person: Dr. Joaquín Prats Cuevas, Emeritus Professor of Education, Teaching and Training in Social Sciences at the University of Barcelona
E-mail: jprats@ub.edu
Phone number: +34 93 403 5092

The University of Barcelona (UB) is a public teaching and research institution, listed as the first Spanish university in the 2021 edition of the QS World University Rankings, in which it holds the 183rd world position among more than 1,600 higher education institutions with 932 active research projects 61 Horizon 2020 projects; 3 Projects awarded by the European Research Council; 297 Consolidated research groups (as recognized by the Government of Catalonia) that include researchers of ICREA, Ramón y Cajal, Juan de la Cierva and Beatriu de Pinós. Additionally, the University has three university hospitals and thirteen associated hospitals. Thus, researchers have the support of Scientific and Technological Centers. Last 2019 6,305 Scientific publications (WoS) are been published and 158 active patents. The QS World University Rankings, apart from academic reputation, which accounts for 40%, and employer reputation, accounting for 10%, measures scientific citations per faculty (20%), and faculty/student ratio (20%), the internationalization faculty ratio (5%) and international student ratio (5%). The institution offering a full range of academic programmes with 16 faculties, 73 bachelor’s degrees, 13 dual study pathways, 157 university master’s degrees, 48 doctoral programs, 223 specialization/postgraduate diplomas

375 master’s degree courses, 142 expert courses, 86 advanced university courses, 76 university extension courses, 616 lifelong learning courses (IL3), 1 UB-specific degree, 12 bachelor’s degrees and 11 university master’s and 2 Erasmus Mundus doctoral programs, ten affiliated centers and a doctoral school through which all its academic programmers are run. It also has a Science Park, a Science and Technology Centre service, that is an international benchmark as a space for research, transfer and innovation in life sciences, seventeen research institutes, over five hundred research groups and nearly six thousand researchers. With sixteen libraries and a hundred thousand square meters dedicated to health and sport, the University of Barcelona offers a wide range of services. Nearly seven thousand square meters of developed space are available to the largest university community in Catalonia. The University of Barcelona is the only Spanish university that is a member of the League of European Research Universities (LERU). It is strongly focused on research with 5,773 teachers and researchers, 4690 trainee researchers, 41,750 bachelor’s degree students, 5,337 university master’s degree students, 4,582 trainee researchers and 8,8941 postgraduate students and 2,409 administrative and service staff. The University of Barcelona has an active participation in international networks and interuniversity partnerships: 3,754 Agreements with universities and other institutions outside Spain, 68 Active Erasmus+ programmes, 1365, Student nationalities

12,456 International students and 307 International teaching and research 307. The University of Barcelona gets closer to society to explain the importance of research and its benefits

Researchers of the University de Barcelona participate in disseminating research results through activities aimed at promoting an interest in science among non-specialized audiences of all ages. The programme ‘La UB divulga’, by the Scientific Culture and Innovation Unit (UCC+i) of the UB, among its main actions are the Science Festival, an annual event that brings research staff into contact with the general public. In addition, the unit carries out activities for primary and secondary schools, such as ‘Camins infinits’ (Infinite Paths) or the Crystallization at School Contest, and other actions such as Arque UB or the ‘La caravana de la ciència’ (The caravan of science).

Link to the University: https://www.ub.edu/web/portal/ca/

Quality Assurance Policies: https://www.ub.edu/portal/web/politiques-qualitat

An overview of the quality assurance system

The Policy and Quality Agency (APQUB) is an internal structure of the University of Barcelona created as a management instrument with functional autonomy and organizational flexibility.

Its main objective is to support the governing bodies, centers, institutes, departments, administrative units and other entities of the same University, in the generation of policies in the academic-teaching, research and organization fields, as well as in all processes planning and evaluation for the decision-making of its activity, preparing it for the accreditations to which it must be submitted by different organizations (national and international) and creating evaluation mechanisms, quality and information systems in all areas of action of the College.

The quality policy is specified in: Statute of the University of Barcelona (UB); UB Code of Ethics for Integrity and Good Practices; Transparency Portal; periodic review of quality management systems in the fields of teaching, research and services; The evaluation and external certifications in the fields of teaching, research and services; The management of available human resources. The internal quality assurance system (SAIQU-UB) is a global model of the university adopted by each faculty of the university. The internal quality assurance system (SAIQU-UB) takes into consideration the guidelines for the development of university degrees and master’s degrees to be established by the Ministry of Education and Science, the guidelines of AQU Catalunya as well with the criteria and guidelines for guaranteeing the quality of the Spanish Europe of Higher Education (ESG, 2015). Being a general model, all the faculties have the same documentary structure of the SAIQU: 1) A public quality policy and objectives on its website; 2) An action plan based on an improvement plan reviewed annually; 3) A process map that lists the processes that affect training programs; 4) Process sheets / Specific quality procedures (PEQ) where the processes are described; 5) A data management and storage system (ESPAI VSMA) as a tool to support the operation of the SAIQU and which centralizes most of the data and indicators related to the teaching-learning processes; 6) Public information and account performance.

Quality assurance system also contemplates Quality Service Research; Organization and Quality Service; Quality Assurance in teaching and learning.

Quality Strategic Lines: https://www.ub.edu/plaestrategic2030/ ; University Quality policies:https://www.ub.edu/portal/documents/6842414/7769787/Pol%C3%ADtica+de+la+Qualitat+de+la+Universitat+de+Barcelona.pdf/f80a9007-71f1-0a8a-5d67-39b0c2f2b408