Madrid |- | width="100" align="center" | 8 | width="250" align="center" | Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya |- | width="100" align="center" | 9 | width="250" align="center" | Universitat Politècnica de València |} Shanghai Ranking The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) is first published in June 2003 by the Center for World-Class Universities (CWCU), Graduate School of Education (formerly the Institute of Higher Education) of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, and updated on an annual basis. Despite its prestige, many people criticize them because they don't take into account the size of the universities for their rankings. {| class="wikitable sortable" |- bgColor="#efefef" |- bgColor="#efefef" | width="100" align="center" | 2019 Ranking | width="400" align="center" | University |- | width="100" align="center" | 1 | width="250" align="center" | Universitat de Barcelona |- | width="100" align="center" | 2-5 | width="250" align="center" | Universitat de València |- | width="100" align="center" | 2-5 | width="250" align="center" | Universidad de Granada |- | width="100" align="center" | 2-5 | width="250" align="center" | Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona |- | width="100" align="center" | 2-5 | width="250" align="center" | Universidad Complutense de Madrid |- | width="100" align="center" | 6-7 | width="250" align="center" | Universidad Autónoma de Madrid |- | width="100" align="center" | 6-7 | width="250" align="center" | Universitat Pompeu Fabra |} Round University Ranking {| class="wikitable sortable" |- bgColor="#efefef" |- bgColor="#efefef" | width="100" align="center" | 2020 Ranking | width="400" align="center" | University |- | width="100" align="center" | 1 | width="250" align="center" | Universitat de Barcelona |- | width="100" align="center" | 2 | width="250" align="center" | Autonomous University of Barcelona |- | width="100" align="center" | 3 | width="250" align="center" | Autonomous University of Madrid |- | width="100" align="center" | 4 | width="250" align="center" | Pompeu Fabra University |- | width="100" align="center" | 5 | width="250" align="center" | Universidad de Navarra |- | width="100" align="center" | 6 | width="250" align="center" | University of Zaragoza |- | width="100" align="center" | 7 | width="250" align="center" | Complutense University of Madrid |- | width="100" align="center" | 8 | width="250" align="center" | Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya |- | width="100" align="center" | 9 | width="250" align="center" | University of Valencia |- | width="100" align="center" | 10 | width="250" align="center" | University of Rovira i Virgili |} List of public universities Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea / Universidad del País VascoUniversity of the Basque Country Universidad Autónoma de Madrid Universidad Carlos III de MadridUC3M Universidad Complutense de Madrid Universidad de AlcaláUniversidad de Alcalá