Spain - founded 1980
The University of the Basque Country/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (UPV/EHU) is the main higher education institution of the Basque Country. It is one of the most important in Spain in terms of the volume of academic results, research, innovation and technological development.
The Basque Country is a cultural, social and economic area that is uniquely placed within Europe overall: its language, living proof of a substrate prior to the advent of Indo-European cultures, is the most salient aspect of its unique identity.
Nowadays, the Basque Country, with over two million inhabitants, is a European region with a strong industrial development. Furthermore, its culture has achieved considerable international renown. As well as the Basque Country’s music, art and literature, Basque cuisine is famous around the world for its ability to treasure a long tradition, while at the same time developing innovative and daring proposals. Along with that cultural and industrial imprint, it has become a tourist hub in recent decades thanks to the interest awoken in its history and culture.
This unique identity embodies the essence and values of the University of the Basque Country, a public university with a clear focus on research, rooted in the Basque culture and open to the world. It plays an important intellectual leadership role within society and its social and ethical commitment is in keeping with our times. The University of the Basque Country is a university that today works, teaches and researches in Basque, Spanish and English.
The UPV/EHU is established in all the provinces of the Basque Autonomous Community (Gipuzkoa, Bizkaia and Alava). Three campuses, twenty study centres and a wide range of degree and post-graduate programmes are its academic credentials. Over 50,000 people –students, academic, management and research staff– attend the university every day to work in a vast array of different areas.
The UPV/EHU currently teaches 82 degrees, 100 master’s degrees and runs 66 PhD programmes. It has its own teaching model (IKD), which encourages autonomous learning by the student and is committed to university-company dual training for many of its qualifications. The close link with the local business world is another of Basque university’s great assets.
As regards research, the UPV/EHU currently has 280 research groups, publishes around 3,500 articles a year in leading international publications and over 400 PhD theses are defended in that same time period. As far as knowledge transfer is concerned, the university has 205 assets in its technology portfolio and annually files for between 70 and 85 patents to protect the results of its research.
The Basque university has mobility agreements in place with institutions in over 60 countries, including 15 in the Top 100 universities worldwide. It has been recognized as Campus of International Excellence and is currently among the 500 best universities in the world on the Shanghai Ranking.