The University of Barcelona is one of the public institutions of higher education in Catalonia, catering to the needs of the greatest number of students and delivering the broadest–and most comprehensive–offering in higher educational courses. The UB is also the principal center of university research in Spain. It has become a European benchmark for research activity in terms of the number of projects it conducts and its excellence.
Its history is closely tied to the history of Barcelona and Catalonia. It combines the values of tradition with its position as an institution dedicated to innovation and teaching excellence: a university that is as outward-looking and cosmopolitan as the city from which it takes its name.