The Polytechnic University of Catalonia (,, ; UPC), currently referred to as BarcelonaTech, is the largest polytechnic university in Catalonia, Spain. UPC's objectives are based on internationalization, as it is one of Europe's technical universities with the most international PhD students and the university with the largest share of international master's degree students. UPC is a university aiming at achieving the highest degree of engineering/technical excellence and has bilateral agreements with several top-ranked European universities. UPC is a member of the Top Industrial Managers for Europe network, which allows for student exchanges between leading European engineering schools. It is also a member of several university federations, including the Conference of European Schools for Advanced Engineering Education and Research (CESAER) and UNITECH. UPC is also a parent institution of the Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals (IBEI). The university was founded in March 1971 as the Universitat Politècnica de Barcelona through the merger of engineering and architecture schools founded in the 19th century. it has 25 schools in Catalonia located in the cities of Barcelona, Castelldefels, Manresa, Sant Cugat del Vallès, Terrassa, Igualada, Vilanova i la Geltrú and Mataró. As of the academic year 2017–18, the UPC has over 30,000 students and over 3,000 teaching and research staff, 65 undergraduate programs, 73 graduate programs and 49 doctorate programs.

Rankings

Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya · BarcelonaTech (UPC) is one of the top public universities in Barcelona, Spain. It is ranked #354 in QS World University Rankings 2024.UPC is consistently ranked as one of the leading European universities in the technology and engineering fields. U.S. News & World Report, for instance, ranks it as the world's 36th for Computer Science and 60th for Engineering. The QS World University Rankings also place the UPC among the world's 50 best universities in disciplines such as Architecture, Civil Engineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Telecommunications Engineering, Instruments Science and Technology and Remote Sensing.

Schools

Affiliated Schools

UPC UNESCO Chairs

UPC Research Centers

The UPC has a number of research centres.

Science Fiction Award

From 1991–2010, the Board of Trustees at the UPC organized and awarded an annual Science Fiction Award. Currently the award is presented bi-annually. Previous winners include:

Notes and references