The University of Barcelona holds the 46th position worldwide in scientific performance, according to the University Ranking by Academic Performance 2017-2018 (URAP). Moreover, it is once more the only university of Spain to appear among the top fifty universities. No other Spanish university has either been awarded with the highest international category (A++). The University of Barcelona stands out particularly in indicators on the number of scientific publications and citations.

The leading institutions in URAP 2017-2018 are Harvard University (United States), University of Toronto (Canada), the University of Oxford (United Kingdom), Pierre and Marie Curie University – Paris 6 (France), and Stanford University (United States). In Spain, the University of Barcelona is followed by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (129th), Universitat de València (210th), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (220th) and Universidad Complutense de Madrid (225th).

The URAP was created by the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Turkey and assesses the scientific performance of academic institutions through different bibliometric indicators that refer to scientific performance, impact of research (citations) or the level of international collaboration, among others. In 2017-2018, this international ranking has evaluated a total of 2,500 university centers worldwide.