The institution
The UPC is a public university that carries out research and provides higher education in the fields of architecture, engineering, sciences and technology
The university for people who want to imagine the future and move the world
The UPC's values are social engagement, a cooperative spirit, professionalism, critical thinking, sustainability and truthfulness.
In collaboration with industry, the UPC is a driver of economic and social change, valorising research and transferring technology and knowledge to society
As a leading member of networks of excellence, the UPC has privileged relations with scientific and educational institutions all over the world
The UPC trains students in the scientific method and strives to inspire new vocations
Introduction
The Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya · BarcelonaTech (UPC) is a public institution of research and higher education in the fields of engineering, architecture, sciences and technology, and one of the leading technical universities in Europe. Every year, close to 6,000 bachelor’s and master’s students, more than 300 doctoral students and 1,600 continuing education students graduate. The UPC has a high graduate employment rate: 95% of its graduates are in work and 88% find a job in under three months. It is ranked in the main international rankings.
Mission, vision and values of the UPC
Mission
To contribute to building a sustainable and fair world through research, technology transfer and knowledge dissemination and by producing engineering, architecture, science and technology graduates who are able to think critically, work in interdisciplinary and multicultural teams, adapt to change and keep learning throughout their lives.
Vision
The UPC, a Catalan public university that is both rooted in the territory and an international point of reference, serves society, works for inclusion and instils the vocation to serve, ethical values, intellectual rigour and a commitment to building a sustainable and fair world; it promotes the most appropriate teaching and learning methods for each educational environment and discipline, and transfers and disseminates the knowledge generated through research to society.
As UPC students, staff and alumni, we aspire to form a lifelong community that is active, dynamic, egalitarian and collaborative.
Values
The UPC's values are social engagement, a cooperative spirit, professionalism, critical thinking, sustainability and truthfulness, and they complement the UPC's mission and vision.
Social engagement
The knowledge we create and transfer to society must be inserted into the basic framework of general social responsibilities, such as our language and culture, maximum inclusiveness and an ethical orientation for all technology, which must serve the greater good.
Cooperative spirit
A willingness to work collectively to achieve a common goal, based on respect for all people. Consensus for decision making is built from individual contributions, and responsibilities are shared in the practice of democracy at the University.
Professionalism
The capacity to perform teaching, research, knowledge transfer, innovation and management competently and responsibly, and guide students' education towards this capacity for their future in society. This means they must have the knowledge, skills and attitudes they need to achieve it.
An intellectual and social disposition that is antidogmatic, analytical, interpretative, methodically self-correcting, sensitive to the complexity of different contexts and to the evolutionary condition of all human activity, and open to pluralism and creativity through the practice of assertive dialogue.
Sustainability
A disposition towards deciding and acting to preserve and regenerate the biosphere, without compromising the wellbeing of current and future generations, and constructing fair, democratic and peaceful societies.
Truthfulness
Obtaining and transmitting knowledge and information with the utmost precision, rigour, integrity and transparency. Truthfulness requires attitudes such as modesty, openness to other perspectives, a spirit of enquiry, challenging what is false and recognising the value of facts.
Rector's greeting
The second is excellence in research and technology transfer, together with training creative, brave and talented young people who will have to face and solve the social and environmental challenges that lie not so far ahead.
The third is our territorial embeddedness: we are the Catalan university that is spread over the largest area, and we are proud to be close to the companies and small and large cities that make up Catalonia.
Rector
UPC campuses and broader presence
Discover the UPC campuses in all their extension, as well as their urban location.
The UPC today
More figures- 31,327 bachelor's and master's degree students
- 3,677 teaching and research staff
- 2,143 administrative and service staff
- 67 bachelor's degrees
- 91 master's degrees
- 45 doctoral programmes
- 18 schools
- 141 lifelong learning programmes
- 10patents last year
- 372
million euros 2024 budget - 121,6 million euros R&D income
- 91,278 alumni
Alliances
The UPC has created a complex network of international alliances with other universities, research institutions and companies that organise new projects and support a good number of initiatives in which the word “collaboration” is the key element. The sphere of action of these alliances without borders is an interconnected world that promotes the sharing of knowledge and experience.
InnoEnergy
A network of innovation in sustainable energies of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT).
CLUSTER
The consortium brings together 12 of the best European universities in the field of Science and Technology.
Sino-Spanish Campus
A campus at Tongji University (China) composed of UPC, UPM, Tecnológico de Monterrey and the Universidad de Sevilla.