The performance of Spanish universities according to the CYD Ranking

The CYD Foundation has published the ninth edition of the CYD Ranking, a tool for measuring and comparing Spanish universities according to different indicators such as teaching and learning, research, knowledge transfer, internationalization and contribution to regional development. In this edition, 79 universities, 28 fields of knowledge and 3,052 different degrees have been analyzed. The participating universities represent 94% of the 84 that offer degree courses included in the Register of Universities, Centers and Degrees (RUCT). Of these, 48 are public (representing 100% representativeness) and 31 are private (86% of the total).

Main messages of the ranking:

• The 15 top-performing Spanish universities according to their number of indicators belonging to the highest-performing group are: Autónoma de Barcelona, Navarra, Autónoma de Madrid, Pompeu Fabra, Deusto, Barcelona, Pontificia Comillas, Carlos III de Madrid, Ramon Llull, Internacional de Catalunya, València-Estudi General, Rovira i Virgili, Politècnica de Catalunya, Girona and Salamanca.
  
  
• The Autonomous Communities with the highest performance indicators are Navarra, the Basque Country, Catalonia, the Valencian Community and Madrid.
  
  
• Women and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) majors:
  - 36% of students enrolled in STEM degrees are women, compared to 56% of the university average. Their theses represent 37% of the total, female teaching and research staff is 30% and female professors account for 23% of the total.
  - According to Ángela Mediavilla, director of the CYD Ranking: "A general trend is observed in the academic career of women: their presence in the university is lower as they advance in their professional academic career."
  
  
• Medicine, nursing and mathematics were the degrees with the highest interest in studying in the 2021-2022 academic year, while Tourism, Agriculture, Engineering, Languages and Humanities were the least demanded.
  
  
• Adaptation to digitalization:
  - The pandemic meant a change in the way university classes were taught. The percentage of hybrid learning in Spanish universities after the end of the 2020-2021 academic year was 32%; representing a growth of 25 percentage points compared to before March 2020, when only 7% of universities opted to combine face-to-face and online teaching.
  - Before March 2020, only 4% of exams were taken online, a percentage that rose to 86% at the beginning of the pandemic and after the end of the 20-21 academic year stood at 30%.