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Autonomous University of Barcelona
Public university in Catalonia, Spain

The Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) is a leading public university located mainly in Cerdanyola del Vallès, near Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain. It comprises 57 departments across 13 faculties offering 85 undergraduate and numerous postgraduate degrees, including nearly 80 doctoral programs. Home to over 40,000 students and 3,600 academic staff, UAB is recognized for its extensive research facilities, including proximity to the ALBA synchrotron at the Barcelona Synchrotron Park. According to the 2023 QS World University Rankings, UAB ranks 178th globally and excels in Veterinary Science, Education, Linguistics, Sociology, and Economics. It is also affiliated with the Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals, enhancing its international profile.

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Location

Most UAB academic activity takes place on the main campus in Cerdanyola del Vallès. Several centres exist in Manresa, Sabadell, Terrassa, Sant Cugat del Vallès and Barcelona.

The UAB campus is about 20 km (12 mi) away from the centre of Barcelona. It is accessible by air (flights to Barcelona, Girona, or Reus), by train (Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat, Renfe), by bus (SARBUS) or by car (AP-7 and C-58 motorways).

History

The Autonomous University of Barcelona was officially created by legislative decree on 6 June 1968. Previously, during the Second Spanish Republic, there had been plans for constituting a second university in Barcelona, but the Civil War and the following years of poverty under the early dictatorship did not allow these plans to become a reality until that year.

On 27 July, a disposition to the decree was added, starting the creation of the Faculty of Literature, Language, Art and the Humanities, the Faculty of Medicine, the Faculty of Science, and the Faculty of Economical Sciences. Around ten weeks later, on 6 October, the first course of the Faculty of Literature, Language, Art and the Humanities was inaugurated at Sant Cugat del Vallès Monastery. During the same month, the Faculty of Medicine was created at the Hospital de Sant Pau in Barcelona.

In 1969, an agreement was signed for the acquisition of the land where the university campus is currently located. During that year, the Faculty of Sciences and the Faculty of Economical Sciences started running. During the following three years, several faculties and professional schools were created, and the construction works on the campus land took place. At the end of this period, most existing faculties and schools are settled in the campus.

At the end of the dictatorship in 1976, the university introduced a plan to create a model of a democratic, independent university, described in a document known as Bellaterra Manifesto, which included a declaration of principles. Two years later, after the approval of the Catalan Statute, the University Council agreed to recourse to the Generalitat de Catalunya.

During the period between 1985 and 1992, the university underwent several faculty reforms and the creation of several new faculties. In 1993, the University Ville was inaugurated as a student residence integrated inside the campus complex.

Rankings

Autonomous University of Barcelona has consistently been ranked in several academic rankings. The 2021 Academic Ranking of World Universities ranked the UAB 201–300 in the world and 2nd in Spain.3 The 2024 QS World University Rankings ranked the university 149th in the world and 1st in Spain.4 The 2023 Times Higher Education World University Rankings placed the university 183th in the world, and 2nd in Spain.5 In U.S. News & World Report 2022 global university rankings, the university placed 144th in its world rankings, and 2nd in Spain.6 In U-Ranking 2021, the university was ranked 2nd in Spain based on their performance in teaching, research and innovations.7

Autonomous University of Barcelona also placed in numerous rankings that evaluates the employment prospects of graduates. In QS's 2022 graduate employability ranking, the university ranked 151–160 in the world, and sixth in Spain.8 In the Times Higher Education's 2021 global employability ranking, the university placed 132nd in the world, and 3rd in Spain.9

Residence

Vila Universitària is the residential complex of the university, located on its campus, which has 812 apartments with a total accommodation capacity for 2,193 people. The apartments at Vila Universitària enjoy a privileged setting: they are located between the campus and the forest and have beautiful views, good train and bus connections and are about 45 minutes from the Plaça de Catalunya train station in Barcelona.10 As the vila’s managers say they are not related to the university. Suits are highly expensive and the rate for international students is higher than for the local and national students.

UAB-approved research institutes

  • Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals (IBEI)
  • Institute of Employment Studies (IET)
  • Institute of Government and Public Policy (IGOP)
  • Institute of Medieval Studies (IEM)
  • Institute of Biotechnology and Biomedicine (IBB)
  • Institute of Educational Sciences (ICE)
  • Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technologies (ICTA)
  • Institute of Neuroscience (INc)
  • Sports Research Institute (IRE)

Library

The UAB has nine university libraries, eight of which are on the Bellaterra Campus, and the other on the Sabadell Campus.11

  • Science and Technology Library
  • Social Sciences Library
  • Humanities Library
  • General Map Library
  • European Documentation Center
  • Communication Library and General Newspaper and Periodicals Library
  • Library of Medicine
  • Veterinary Library
  • Sabadell University Library

Computer Vision Center

Computer Vision Center is a computer vision research centre based at UAB.1213 It was established in 1994 by the Generalitat de Catalunya and UAB. In 2002, the commenced publication of Electronic Letters on Computer Vision and Image Analysis. It participated in the Pascal Challenge in 2009.1415

Port d'Informació Científica (PIC)

The Port d'Informació Científica (Catalan for "Scientific Information Port") is a research centre and institution at the campus of the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. Founded in 2003, its activity has been closely related to the development and exploitation of computing resources for the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG). A collaboration of IFAE (High Energy Physics Institute of the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona) and CIEMAT (Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas Medioambientales and Tecnológicas), it is supported by regional (Catalan) and national (Spanish) research governing authorities.

The main scientific project PIC is associated to, in terms of utilisation of computing resources, is the deployment, operations and maintenance of the Spanish Tier 1 site for the WLCG, supporting the ATLAS, CMS and LHCb experiments of the LHC at CERN. PIC researchers and computing experts hence contribute to the development of Grid Computing technologies, as required by the computing needs of these experiments. Other projects in which PIC researchers are involved include computing support for Astrophysics and Cosmology experiments (such as MAGIC, PAU and DES) and computing techniques for medical imaging.

Notable faculty

Notable alumni

See also

References

  1. "QS World University Rankings". Topuniversities. Archived from the original on 2012-09-17. Retrieved 2022-02-16. https://web.archive.org/web/20120917171555/http://www.topuniversities.com/institution/universitat-autonoma-de-barcelona ↩

  2. "UAB Ranking by Subject QS". Topuniversities. Archived from the original on 2012-09-17. Retrieved 2022-02-16. https://web.archive.org/web/20120917171555/http://www.topuniversities.com/institution/universitat-autonoma-de-barcelona ↩

  3. "Academic Ranking of World Universities - Autonomous University of Barcelona". Shanghai Ranking. Archived from the original on 2020-01-30. Retrieved 2022-02-16. https://web.archive.org/web/20200130122339/http://www.shanghairanking.com/World-University-Rankings/Autonomous-University-of-Barcelona.html ↩

  4. "QS World University Rankings". Topuniversities. Archived from the original on 2012-09-17. Retrieved 2023-07-02. https://web.archive.org/web/20120917171555/http://www.topuniversities.com/institution/universitat-autonoma-de-barcelona ↩

  5. "World University Rankings - Autonomous University of Barcelona". THE World University Rankings. 13 November 2022. Retrieved 2022-07-15. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/autonomous-university-barcelona ↩

  6. "Best Global Universities - Autonomous University of Barcelona". U.S. News Education (USNWR). Retrieved 2022-01-15. https://www.usnews.com/education/best-global-universities/rankings ↩

  7. "U-Ranking 2021". BBVA. BBVA. 2021. Archived from the original on 25 February 2021. Retrieved 16 February 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20210225192642/https://www.u-ranking.es/analisis.php ↩

  8. "Graduate Employability Ranking 2022". QS Top Universities. QS Quacquarelli Symonds Limited. 2022. Retrieved 16 February 2022. https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/employability-rankings/2022 ↩

  9. "Global University Employability Ranking 2021". 24 November 2021. Retrieved 2022-01-15. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/student/best-universities/best-universities-graduate-jobs-global-university-employability-ranking ↩

  10. Vila Universitària de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona http://vilauniversitaria.com ↩

  11. "Servicio de Bibliotecas - UAB Barcelona". www.uab.cat. https://www.uab.cat/web/servicio-de-bibliotecas-1345733231312.html ↩

  12. Francisco Viñals Carrera, María Luz Puente Balsells (2003). Análisis de escritos y documentos en los servicios secretos. Herder. ISBN 84-254-2319-8. 84-254-2319-8 ↩

  13. Generalitat de Catalunya, ed. (1999). Recerca a Catalunya: centres de recerca, grups de recerca, departaments universitaris, serveis cientificotècnics. University of Michigan. /wiki/University_of_Michigan ↩

  14. "Premien un lector d'imatges de la UAB" (PDF). ADN. 2009-11-24. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-10-03. https://web.archive.org/web/20111003090724/http://www.adn.es/pdf/ADN-2009-11-24-BCN.pdf ↩

  15. "Eight gold medal from "The Pascal Challenge" for the Computer Vision Center of the UAB". Global Talent. 21 October 2009.[permanent dead link] http://www.en.globaltalentfcri.com/articles/927/Eight-gold-medal-from-The-Pascal-Challenge-for-the-Computer-Vision-Center-of-the-UAB.html ↩

  16. Bonanno, A.; Busch, L. (2015). Handbook of the International Political Economy of Agriculture and Food. Handbooks of Research on International Political Economy series. Edward Elgar Publishing. p. 10. ISBN 978-1-78254-826-3. Retrieved 28 Aug 2023. 978-1-78254-826-3 ↩