Overview

• Harvard retained its number-one position in the Academic Ranking of World Universities, which measures Nobel laureates, highly cited researchers and publications in Nature and Science.
• Spain matched last year’s count with 36 institutions in the top 1,000 and secured ten spots in the top 500, underscoring strong average quality but few elite leaders.
• The Universitat de Barcelona stayed in the 150–200 band as the highest-ranked Spanish campus, followed by Valencia (201–300) and six universities clustered in the 300–400 range.
• Key regional institutions preserved their positions from 2024, with the Universidad de Santiago de Compostela (501–600), Universitat Politècnica de València (401–500) and Universidade de Vigo (801–900) holding steady.
• Chinese universities expanded to about 244 entries in the top 1,000—outpacing the US’s total count—and this rise is fueling calls in Spain for boosted research investment and recruitment of highly cited scholars.