The UPV, the university with the greatest social and economic impact in Spain.
The Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) is the university with the greatest social and economic impact in Spain. This is recognized by the 2026 THE Sustainability University Impact Ratings, the eighth edition of the ranking compiled by Times Higher Education (THE)—considered, along with the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU, commonly known as the Shanghai Ranking) and Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) as one of the world’s top three indicators of university quality—and whose results were released a few hours ago.
Furthermore, the 2026 THE Sustainability University Impact Ratings once again rank the UPV among the world’s top 200 universities in this field and, as expected given the points made earlier, as the leading national technical university and the number one university in the Valencian Community.
Methodology
The ranking evaluates institutions of higher education based on their commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), an initiative launched by the United Nations (UN) in 2015.
Specifically, THE calculates each institution’s annual global ranking by combining its score on SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals) with its three highest scores on the other SDGs. For the overall ranking, the final score is an average of the total scores from the last two years.
Ranked 84th in the world in “Decent Work and Economic Growth” and among the top 200 globally in a total of 5 SDGs
The 2026 University Impact Rankings, which in this edition includes a total of 1,603 universities in its rankings following its analysis, particularly highlights the institution led by José Esteban Capilla in three SDGs, ranking the Universitat Politècnica de València among the top 100 in the world in those areas.
Specifically, these are SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), and SDG 4 (Quality Education), in which it ranks 80th, 84th,and 99th globally.
For SDG 8, the UPV is also the top university in Spain, while for the other two, it ranks second nationally.
Also ranked among the world’s top 200 in “Responsible Production and Consumption” and “Climate Action”
In addition to the three SDGs mentioned above, the UPV also ranks among the world’s top 200 for two other SDGs: SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) and SDG 13 (Climate Action).
It is worth noting that the 17 SDGs were officially adopted on September 25, 2015, the day the UN approved the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which includes 17 global goals to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity. Each of these goals has specific targets to be achieved over the next 15 years.
The UPV, recognized internationally by all top-tier rankings
The ranking published by THE once again confirms the quality of the UPV, which has been recognized for more than a decade by all leading international rankings.
Not surprisingly, in its most recent issue, The Shanghai Ranking named the UPV the best polytechnic university in Spain, in addition to including it, for 21.er For the [number] consecutive year, it has been ranked among the world’s top 500 universities.
Likewise, the most recent edition of the QS World University Rankings to date included the UPV in the World’s Top 500 for the 15th consecutive year.