The best universities in Spain in 2022

Criteria used to choose the best universities in Spain

Students research universities to decide which fit best with their educational and professional goals. When doing so, it’s a good idea to check the rankings of the best universities in Spain. Although there is no universal scale to measure the relative excellence of universities, there is a series of metrics which are taken into account to produce the university classification.

These metrics include:

• Academic reputation: this is calculated by interviewing academics around the world about the merits of the university.
• Citations per faculty: this consists in studying the research strength of each of the universities by counting the number of times their research papers are cited by other specialists.
• Faculty/student ratio: the number of academics to students.
• International student ratio and international faculty ratio.

While some experts believe it is impossible to objectively measure the quality of a university, it is possible to give a number of examples of criteria which could help you choose your future university. For example, the specialisms offered, the background of staff, teaching methods, student attendance, and the exchange programmes and student accommodation offered, among others.

How many universities are there in Spain?

There are 83 universities in Spain, 50 public and 33 private. Their faculties and facilities are distributed across 169 towns. The total number of students at the 83 universities in the 2019-2020 academic year was 1,633,358.

The 5 best universities in Spain

Taking into account everything we’ve already said, according to the international rankings the best 5 universities in Spain are:

• Universidad de Navarra
  One of the best universities in Spain is the privately-run Universidad de Navarra. Founded in 1952 it has more than 12,000 students and stands out thanks to the importance it gives to the sciences. Our university residence in Pamplona is only 300 metres from this university.
• Universidad de Sevilla
  This is one of the best universities in Spain and is state-owned. It has a very long history as it was founded in 1505. It’s one of the universities in Spain with the largest student bodies, with around 70,000 students. micampus has 4 university residences in Seville, all of them close to the Universidad de Sevilla:
  • micampus UPO.
  • micampus Rector Estanislao del Campo.
  • micampus Armendariz.
  • micampus Bormujos.
• Universidad Complutense de Madrid
  The Universidad Complutense de Madrid is not only one of the best universities in Spain, but also the oldest public university in Madrid. It is state-owned and has more than 70,000 students.
• Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
  Another public university, this one is more modern as it was founded in 1968. It has over 30,000 students and has been praised for its multidisciplinary education model.
• Universidad Nebrija
  Though this is one of the youngest universities in Spain, founded in 1995, it is considered to be one of the most prestigious. It is a private university and has over 12,000 students.

Whichever university you choose in the Comunidad de Madrid, our student residence in Madrid will always be the best option for accommodation because of how near it is to the universities, although it’s also worth considering other options such as our university residences in Getafe and Aranjuez.

But… which is the best university in Spain?

There are several different rankings of the best universities in Spain, and the institutions change their positions in each of them. This makes it difficult to know which is the best university in the whole country. Each ranking uses different criteria, but the final decision has to be yours. In addition to the criteria used by the different rankings you also have to take into account other factors, such as the type of studies you want to do, the city, the accommodation, the graduate job opportunities, etc.