The University of Navarra, No. 1 with employers

The University of Navarra, where I work these days, has the best reputation among employers of all Spanish universities. This according to QS World University Ranking 2021.

In the category of "employability", Navarra, a private Catholic university, also ranks 71 among all universities around the world among employers. The ranking is based on a survey of 50,000 employers. Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, where I worked for two years, ranks 6th in this global ranking. (MIT was first.)

Both UNAV and Tsinghua rank among the top 100 (51-100) in media and communications programs, where I teach. In Spain, UNAV ranks second, behind the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

QS has been doing these rankings since 2004. This year the rankings include 1,200 universites from 80 countries. The rankings are based on academic ranking, reputation among employers, number of students per professor, percentage of foreign professors, and percentage of international students. Seventy percent of the information for the ratings comes from research by QS or third parties and 30 percent from the universities themselves.

Having worked at UNAV for five years now, I can say that the administrators and professors all take seriously the notion that we are trying to "formar buena gente", which roughly means to develop our students into good citizens (literally translated, it means "to shape good people"). They live it and breathe it. QS doesn't actually measure that in the rankings, but the result shows up there.

Inspirational kickoff to the academic year

Uxue Barkos, president of Navarra, and Alfonso Sánchez-Tabernero, rector of the University. (Photo by Manuel Castells for El Español, Navarra.com)

PAMPLONA, Spain -- Some of my colleagues here at the University of Navarra have been anxious  since local elections in May brought in a new crop of populist reformers whose rhetoric sounds radical to them.

They think the university could be a target for the newcomers, given that it is private, Catholic and relatively expensive (though about a fourth as expensive as a comparable university in the U.S.).

So the university's rector, Alfonso Sanchez-Tabernero, showed himself to be an able diplomat when he addressed an audience of close to 1,000 faculty, local officials, and students today with a message that said essentially: We are ready to cooperate with and collaborate with whoever the local officials are. He was telling his staff, in effect, calm down, already. Don't worry. We'll survive.

But he was also sending a collegial message to the new leaders of the province of Navarra, who were with him on the dais. Very astute, I thought. He is in the photo above with Uxue Barkos, new president of the province. Barkos is the leader of the Basque coaltion. Some of her group would like to see Navarra, a wealthy province that is about 25% Basque, unite with the adjacent Basque Country region. This could have economic, political and cultural implications, such as the languages taught in schools.

Pamplona: Lots of running, no bulls

Pamplona is in NE Spain close to Basque country. A 1,200-year-old pilgrimage route passes through the city and goes to Santiago de Compostela in the northwest of the country. 

The city of 200,000 sits on a plateau, surrounded by hills. 

PAMPLONA, Spain -- After one week we love this place. It has lots of parks, bike paths, cafes and restaurants all within a short walk of our apartment.

On our block are a butcher shop, fruit and vegetable shop, a small general store and a bar or two. A big grocery-department store like a Wal-Mart is two or three blocks away. Cindy likes all the shopping opportunities.

The local people are generally friendly and very polite, although local people tell us that they are more reserved than the people in the South.

We have been running around getting various documents at various government agencies so we can get paid, get health care, etc. The offices are professional and efficient. Not a lot of waiting.