The Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) is known for its excellence in research and quality in teaching, and is a reference centre in Europe. The UAB is located only 25 minutes via public transportation from Barcelona’s city centre, a cosmopolitan metropolis lying on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. The main campus is located in Bellaterra, in the heart of one of the main industrial and technological poles of Mediterranean Europe.
The UAB caters to all aspects of university life. The campus is a true city of knowledge with almost 50,000 inhabitants: students, lecturers, researchers and administrative staff. It is organised with all the necessary services for the university community: residence halls (2,100 places), specialised libraries, a language learning centre, sport facilities (with a gym, pools, football pitch, etc.), healthcare centre, restaurants, stores and cafés.
The UAB offers top-level postgraduate and graduate programmes in almost all areas of knowledge:
87 bachelor's degrees. Its international dimension can also be seen by the high number of students from abroad enrolled (1,469 international bachelor’s degree students). The degrees in Business Management and Administration, Economics, Primary Education and Tourism are offered fully in English, and many other degrees offer subjects in English.
315 Master’s Degrees, whose aim is to provide students with an advanced-level, specialised, multidisciplinary education oriented towards both professional specialisation and research initiation.
68 PhD programmes, providing advanced training in research techniques, culminating in a doctoral thesis (1,114 PhD theses in 2015-2016). They involve preparing and defending a thesis and usually last three years, with the aim of producing top-level academic and professionals. A total of 27 of the UAB’s PhD programmes have received an Excellence Award. The European Doctoral Research Component includes stays in different European countries and the participation of lecturers from foreign universities.
The international dimension of the UAB can be seen by the number of students enrolled from abroad, especially in master's degrees with 2,105 international students (35%), and PhD programmes with 1,692 international students (33%). There are over 45 master's degrees taught 100% in English.
The UAB promotes innovation, employability and entrepreneurship. It strives to foster research and transfer in all areas of knowledge and works closely together with the surrounding business and industrial community, as well as with scientific centres such as the Alba Synchrotron Light Facility, located five minutes away from campus.
The UAB campus includes 351 research groups, 57 departments and 68 research institutes and centres, many of which were created in collaboration with important scientific institutions, and all of which conduct a large amount of research activities (3,316 articles published in indexed journals according to 2015, Thomson Reuters WOK). Research activities are also carried out in the five UAB-affiliated hospitals, three of which have been awarded the Carlos III Health Institute’s seal of excellence.
The university actively encourages the involvement and participation of its students in volunteering activities and community service, and has been recognised by several institutes for these tasks. It also carries out awareness-raising campaigns among the university community.
The UAB facilitates participation in mobility programmes and works to attract students from abroad (3,546 international mobility students). Its most important projects are Erasmus Mundus, Comenius, Leonardo Da Vinci and Erasmus K2. It also has specific programmes which welcome and aid international students once they arrive at the UAB. Under the Erasmus programme alone, the UAB has 1,300 bilateral agreements with more than 500 universities in Europe.
The University of Barcelona is a public institution that was founded in 1450. The urban university has multiple campuses spread throughout Barcelona and the surrounding area on the eastern coast of Spain. The Humanities Campus in the city center is the university's main location. Other university sites include the Bellvitge Health Sciences Campus and the Food and Nutrition Torribera Campus. Tuition costs are the same for international and domestic degree-seeking students. Some university-owned and -affiliated student housing is available for both undergraduate and graduate students.
The university has many academic divisions, including biology, economics and business, law, medicine and health sciences, philosophy and psychology. Additionally, the University of Barcelona is affiliated with eight centers through collaboration agreements, including the School of Cinema and Audiovisual Studies of Catalonia, the Institute of Public Security of Catalonia and the National Institute of Physical Education. The university’s academic calendar is semester-based. Courses are primarily taught in Spanish and Catalan, since Barcelona is located in the Catalonia region, although a handful of bachelor’s and even more master’s programs are fully or partially English-taught. Examples of completely English-taught offerings include a bachelor's program in business administration and management as well as master's programs in economics and international relations. Some of the university’s many research institutes and centers are the Institute of Cosmos Sciences, the Water Research Institute and the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia.
The Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) holds a leading position in the most prestigious and influent international university rankings. In recent years, this award has been favored by the growing impact of the research, the constant improvement of the quality of teaching and the ability to attract international talent. This progress has been decisive in moving to leading positions among Spanish universities in the two main university rankings, including the QS World University Ranking. The UAB was also one the first Spanish universities to obtain recognition as a Campus of International Excellence. Since the 2011/12 academic year, it is one of the top ten young universities with the highest international projection and global prestige.
UAB was founded in 1968. The founders aimed to establish four principles of autonomy: freedom to select teaching staff, admission available to all students, freedom to create study plans and freedom to administrate the university's capital. It is therefore a young university, but in its short history it has moved forward at a rapid pace.
