Lleida, Catalonia, the University of Lleida (UdL) has been ranked first in Spain for its contribution to regional development, sharing the top spot with the University of the Basque Country. It also placed second in research, alongside the University of Navarra and the University of Cantabria, according to the 2026 CYD Foundation report.

Overall, the UdL recorded sixteen high-performance indicators, two more than last year. It also had eighteen intermediate indicators and two low-performance indicators, three fewer than the previous year.

“The results show the UdL’s strong commitment to the region and our determined effort to promote local research and development projects,” said Damià Vericat, Vice-Rector for Governance. He added that the findings “also reinforce our claim that the new funding model for public universities should consider their territorial impact.”

For regional development, the university scored highly across all indicators. These included internships in local companies, regional research funds, regional publications, and collaboration with firms in its area of influence.

In research, the UdL received top marks for external funding captured, publications per professor, research periods, and post-doctoral positions. It also scored highly for the normalised impact of published articles, the number of highly cited publications, and open-access publications.

In knowledge transfer, the university performed well in private funding, publications with companies, and impact on public policy. In international orientation, it excelled in doctoral theses by foreign students and master's degrees taught in a foreign language. However, one of its two low-performance indicators was the graduation rate for bachelor's degrees, and the other was income generated from licences.

In teaching and learning, the university did not record any high-performance scores. Other indicators, including master's graduation rates, performance rates, success rates, and the number of students from other autonomous communities, were rated as intermediate. The 13th edition of the CYD ranking assessed 84 universities, covering 87.5% of universities in Spain, including all 48 public universities and 36 private institutions. The overall list was topped by the University of Navarra, the Autonomous University of Barcelona, and Carlos III University of Madrid. More Catalonia news