UCAM has entered the ranking of the world’s best universities for the first time. This is the World University Rankings, prepared by The Times Higher Education, in its edition of this year, published today, Tuesday. This ranking has selected 1,527 universities from 92 countries, which makes it the largest and most diverse in the world. The report analyses 13 indicators, which measure the performance of each institution in teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international perspective.

This good result of UCAM is especially endorsed by the internationalisation section; 10% of the UCAM students come from 97 countries on the five continents, which makes it a multicultural and wealth-generating centre. More than 4,600 international students from undergraduate, postgraduate and university-specific degrees, international offices and collaborating entities were trained last year at UCAM Universidad Católica de Murcia.

Likewise, it is one of the Spanish universities with the greatest number of programmes taught in English and the one that offers the highest number of degrees in this language in the Region of Murcia. Concerning Bachelor’s Degrees, it includes this year that of Psychology, in its Murcia Campus, and also Dentistry in the Cartagena Campus. The institution already offered previously in English Business Administration and Management, Physical Activity and Sports Sciences and Dentistry in Murcia, as well as ten postgraduate degrees. In this sense, it is also worth noting that in the field of research, UCAM develops European projects with 37 countries.

Supported by other prestigious rankings

The aforementioned ranking places UCAM in 37th place in the Spanish university system, which includes 83 public and private universities. Likewise, there are several international rankings that place UCAM as a worldwide reference. The latest report from the Knowledge and Development Foundation (Fundación Conocimiento y Desarrollo, CYD) highlights its range of bachelor’s and master’s degree programmes taught in English, which make it an academic centre of great interest to students from the various autonomous communities and other countries.

For its part, ‘The Europe Teaching Rankings 2019’ placed UCAM as the tenth university in Europe in terms of teaching quality, which is the result of its teaching methodology, based on personalised teaching and small groups. A consequence of this are, for example, the excellent results of its Medicine students in the Resident Medical Intern exams (MIR), with more than 97% of passing students, or those achieved by the students of the Master’s Degree in Access to the Legal Profession, with 98% of passing students in the official exam for the exercise of the profession. 

Bimodal model to guarantee teaching

UCAM has programmed a bimodal teaching model for this coming academic year that guarantees the training of all its students with the highest quality in any of the scenarios that may arise due to the health crisis. This system includes online, face-to-face and blended learning, for which it adapts the most advanced physical and virtual resources. In this way, it guarantees compliance with current security measures and the development of teaching planning. Attendance will be a priority, and cameras have been installed in all classrooms so that students who cannot attend can follow the classes by video-streaming. Recordings will also be made for those who are affected by the time difference and cannot follow the classes simultaneously.